Writing Style and Reading Audiences

Friendship and Writing

My doctoral dissertation looked at the correspondence between George Sand (Amantine Aurore Lucile Dupin Dudevant) and Gustave Flaubert. Their letters were fascinating because despite their age difference (she was 17 years older than he) they communicated as equals. The letters are often humorous. Most deal with writing.

Sand was a prolific writer. She wrote more than 20,000 letters in her lifetime, 63 works of fiction, as well as a dozen plays. Her collected works total about 160 volumes. Flaubert authored around ten.

They met soon after Flaubert’s Madame Bovary was published. Sand read it. She was impressed. She sat down and wrote a laudatory article in support of the young writer. He was so grateful that he wrote to her, begging to meet her. Their meeting was the beginning of a life-long friendship. They visited each other’s estates. When they were together, they would sit by the fire discussing literature for the entire night. When they were apart, they wrote letters, leaving us with a wonderful view into the lives of two writerly friends.

Style and Writing Habits

Studying their work, I realized that Flaubert’s genius lay in his determination to portray accurately and realistically while integrating depth of sentiment and character. Sand’s genius resided in her understanding of social issues, her vivid imagination, and her fascination with natural history. She wrote fluently and eloquently, rarely crossing out a line of her handwritten manuscripts. Because she wrote to earn money, she published in the “feuilletons” or the weekly newspaper serials of the time. The literacy rate in France during their lifetime was 90% and the weekly serials were extremely popular. Flaubert, on the other hand, struggled, scratched out words and sentences, searched for the precise word, and spent years perfecting his work.

But if we look closely at their prose, it is clear that Flaubert understood how to pack a wallop. He does this by weaving all five senses into a single paragraph of description that ends with an action. For example, in a description of a kitchen in chapter 9 of Madame Bovary, the wall is damp (touch) and oozing (sight), the door is creaking (sound), the stove is steaming (smell), Emma is nibbling nuts (taste), and drawing on the tablecloth with her knife (action). He integrates sensations, emotions, thoughts, and action creating a lucid description that the reader can envision in his or her own mind’s eye.

Sand, on the other hand, tends to narrate her stories in long sentences as a sequence of discussions or a sequence of events rather than focusing on detailed description. Interestingly, Sand was a genius of the short, pithy sentences that become maxims and her statements are often quoted as such. Their differences in style attracted different readers and created different followers although they both enjoyed reading each other’s prose.

Targeting a Reading Audience

As I write, I always have these two authors in mind. Flaubert stated, “One never tires of what is well written, Style is life! It is the very blood of thought!”  Sand wrote with a social purpose because she hoped to have a positive impact on the lives of women and the poor, stating, “Art for art’s sake is an empty phrase. Art for the sake of truth, art for the sake of the good and the beautiful, that is the faith I am searching for.”

My own style is not yet definitive. I struggle to find the right tone and the right voice. I do believe that writing with an audience in mind is important. But I also want my work to be well written stylistically. I hope to eventually hit the right note as I progress with my editing this year.

Writing Goals for 2019

How exciting it is to be at the beginning of 2019! I like this number—two thousand nineteen has a nice ring to it. I am looking forward to a year of writing, attending events on writing, and learning more about writing and publishing. Having worked on my writing goals since January 2018, I am better attuned to my own process and progress. Over the holidays, I took a break, although I spent some time pondering how to approach my goals for the year 2019. After much thought, I have decided to maintain similar goals for 2019. I will continue to focus on my creative writing and do the research to support it. This year my goals are to:

1. Edit my first novel into a coherent manuscript by the 7^th of December 2019;
2. Complete a draft of my second novel by the 7^th of December 2019;
3. Document my progress through a blog to be posted on the seventh day of each month, writing 12 blogs in 2019; and
4. Continue to develop a network of kindred spirits in the world of writing and publishing.

Happy New Year! May your year be filled with satisfying work!