EWC 4U1/7

The Qualities of Literary Composition

According to Stephen Spender, here are the qualities of literary composition:

(a) inspiration - the moment of conception of the vague structure and form that the story will take

(b) memory - all the singular details that the writer can bring to the work from the well of her own consciousness - the sensations, the images, the characters, and the events that will serve the original concept

(c) concentration - controls such matters as tone and point of view, maintaining a consistency that will give the work much of its unity

(d) faith - in your material and your gifts as a writer

(e) song - expert use of language, not merely in the sense of correct usage, but in the sense that language is the means by which a certain music is created, a sound in the ears as well as logic for the mind. It is meter, it is rhythm, it is emphasis, it is even gesture.

(from The Art of Writing Fiction by Ray B. West, Jr.)