2 Authors Gave Me a New Perspective on Writing
By: H.A. Ghani
Tags: Creativity, Self Improvement, Personal Development, Writing, Writing Tips

Writing and Creativity

2 Authors Gave Me a New Perspective on Writing

Hint: it’s about graphology

Photo by Dawid Zawiła from Unsplash

Not another article about writing skills and creativity.

Don’t worry, I’m taking a different approach. Before we start, lets quickly aknowledge that sharpening your command of language is always the best way to improve your writing.

However, a few years ago I learnt something new from a couple of novels that I read:

It’s not just the words themselves that affect an audience, but how the words are consumed visually as well.

I don’t mean images, but the texture of how the words are laid out in print. This is called graphology in the field of stylistics.

Simply put, stylistics is interpreting and investigating texts from a purely linguistic angle. Graphology a branch of stylistics that deals with how meaning is created from the layout of the text. By considering graphology in your writing, you’ll be able to find new ways to create meaning and an build an emotional connection with your audience.

The novelists below gave me a new perspective on writing through the power of graphology and they can inspire you too:

Cormac McCarthy — Deleting Punctuation

Most well-known for The Road and No Country for Old Men, he frequently uses very short sentences and limits his use of punctuation to commas and full stops only. No speech marks, semi-colons. Nada. Mainly simple sentences and only full stops, and commas.

His minimum use of punctuation makes the page look near blank, giving his worlds a feeling of rawness and emptiness. This fits well with his near dystopian worlds and existential themes. It’s a perfect example of how a bold stylistic choice can complement specific subjects.

How You Could Use It

If you’re an activist and you’re writing about an experience, you want your writers to feel the brevity of your topic. Give your piece a visual layer of bluntness and brutal honesty by stripping down the aesthetic of your sentences. Stick to basic punctuation and shorter sentences to give your writing an unflinching air of authority. Before even reading it, a glance at the page will tell readers that you don’t care about pretty paragraphs and semi-colons, you’re there to remind them of what’s important, and that’s all.

Salvador Plascencia — Covering the Page

Blacking out large blocks of text should hide a message, but Plascencia’s The People of Paper uses it to do the opposite. It’s absurd, the plot partly revolves around the main character waging a war against the narrator. Plascencia blacks out entire portions of writing to communicate the protagonist’s war against the narrator telling us his story.

It’s just genius!

How You Could Use It

Imagine that you’re promoting a new data-protection product in a blog post. You could cover up portions of the text, only revealing the text that appeals to your audience’s needs, and emotionally aligns them to your brand’s mission. It highlights the key information in a way that visually speaks to the topic of privacy and security.

The Takeaway

Both of these writers have shown you that considering graphology can inject your writing with a new layer of meaning which can surprise and delight your audience. Whilst these examples may inspire you, I encourage you to think about other unconventional ways of communicating your prose visually.

If you enjoyed this article on writing, check out a related one: 6 Essential Reading Tips To Increase Your Productivity