Stanzas to Stories: Borrowing from Poets to Write Better Everything
Bill Gillard- https://www.billgillard.com/
Thomas Cannon- https://thomascannonauthor.com/
Surprise- Volta
Surprise in poetry is the use of unexpected shifts, imagery, or structural turns—often called a volta—to disrupt predictable patterns and engage the reader, preventing boring, linear narratives. It acts as a “gentle shock,” fostering discovery by breaking conventions through off-rhymes, strange ideas, or sudden thematic reversals.
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
Strive for the unexpected in prose as well.
In the TV Show, Serenity, Malcolm Reynold’s flips a action trope on its head, when he says to his first officer,
“Zoe, ship is yours. Remember, if anything happens to me, or you don’t hear from me within the hour… you take this ship and you come and you rescue me.”
In the Movie What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Gilbert is sacrificing his life and feels trapped so that he can care for his brother Arnie who has an intellectual disability. His character has him put Arnie first to protect him. But at a certain point, he hits Arnie. He even says afterwards that the one thing you never do is hurt Arnie. But the writer has to have him do something he would never do. So, we can see how far he is pushed. It creates tension and takes the audience on a ride.
Donald Maas has an exercise where you insert at least three times in your manuscript a scene where your main character
-Does something she would never do
-Say something she would never say
-Thinks something she would never think
The result most likely will actually deepen their character. This will surprise your reader, and your creativity will come up with
Imagery
-using descriptive language to appeal to the 5 senses. To create a vivid mental picture (efficiently) https://spines.com/what-is-imagery-in-writing/
Use imagery in prose to create emotional and psychological depth.
1. Imagery makes readers feel like they’re inside it. That connection keeps them engaged and invested in your story, article, or argument.
In poetry, you strip away everything but the sensory experience of an image
In prose, instead of describing everything, choose only the key objects and the key details that evoke an emotional response to the pov character.
A well-placed image can deepen theme, reveal character, or shift the mood of an entire scene. In a novel’s architecture, imagery is the stained glass that lets the light through in color.
https://livinghappy.substack.com/p/how-to-use-imagery-to-strengthen
Imagery can establish that mood faster than exposition.
compare “The room was quiet” with “Silence clung to the walls, broken only by the slow, deliberate ticking of the grandfather clock.” One tells, the other sets a tone.
Use imagery instead of feel/felt
Examples of Imagery to Show Emotions
- Fear/Anxiety: “Her heart knocked against her ribs like a caged bird.”
- Sadness/Depression: “I felt very still and very empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo.”
- Regret/Vulnerability: “Regret is like a predator, and he feels like prey—vulnerable, exposed.”
- Anger: “Something murky and cold rolls through her insides.”
- Shock/Disbelief: “Sam’s body reeled as if hunks of his world, his trust, hopes, and every emotion he held for Amy, were crashing to the garage’s concrete floor and shattering into unrecognizable shards.”
- Relief: “She let go of a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding.”
How to use imagery in writing
-Start with the Senses. Engage multiple senses so the reader experiences the scene, not just visualize it.
-Use specific nouns and active verbs more than adjectives. Avoid adverbs.
-Identify- What is the purpose of the setting?
-Identify- What is the pov character doing with it? How does it make them feel?
Repetition
Repetition in poetry.
Tyger Tyger, burning bright”
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Why? To say this is the important part here. To intensify emotions
To create layers of meaning. Reveal slowly the true significance of something.
Create emotional resonance.
Anadiplosis (form of repetition)
The last word of a clause or sentence is repeated as the first word of the next one.
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.
Yoda, in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. “Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hatred; hatred leads to conflict; conflict leads to suffering.”
Repetition can be coming back to something repeatedly in a story.
- In catch-22, throughout the story, Orr keeps crashing his airplane and is seen taking apart a stove and driving Yossarian nuts. Orr seems like just another example of the craziness that happens in war and to Yossarian. And it works. Because the reader sees Orr taking apart the stove over and over. We are immersed in the craziness WWII . Then when he intentionally crashes and escapes to Sweden, the reader gets a twist and sees how Orr was the one doing things right.
Juxtaposition-
Can you, as the author or the character say something that is incongruent with what is going on?
She told me I had to choose between her and fishing.
The next line, I’m going to miss her.
Do you want more coffee?
I want a divorce.
Drinking Stories by Thomas Cannon
In response, she told him the story that ended her marriage. “We have one of those Keurig coffee makers. In the morning, he wanted to make his cup first because he had to leave first. Then he’d make me a cup of coffee.
“It tasted terrible because he reused the pod he made his coffee with.”
“So you divorced him because he’s cheap?”
“No,” she answered. “I divorced him because I would drink it.”
Metaphors and Similes
Use Metaphors and Similes Strategically Make them organic to avoid the cliché.
Some poetry, especially rhyming, the feeling comes first, then the comparison, and you end up with cliches. Begin with an image and decide what it stands for.
Donald Maas exercise- Find a prominent object, event or action that appears in your story. How can that thing you choose recur in your ending? Put it in your ending. Find three other times for it to be in the story.
Donald Maas- having a character return to a setting can show how they have changed (think
Wizard of Oz- Dorothy initial beliefs about the farm and then her return.)
Poetry- Everything has been described in a poem. The subject becomes unique and vivid through the poet’s eyes.
Prose “A place lives most vividly through the eyes of characters.” Maas
Thomas Cannon Author 