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  • The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."
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June 07, 2004

PUBLISHING "BUSINESS"

There's an interesting three-way discussion going on at the moment, prompted by this post of Sarah's about the publishing business. Dan Green has weighed in with his thoughts, and the Literary Saloon has subsequently written about both. A lively debate is emerging about the role business plays in the publishing of books.

Having just returned from BEA, one of things I've realized is how little I know and understand about this Byzantine business, so rather than weigh in with my own, and surely foolish, thoughts, I'm going to re-read all three posts and digest them a bit further. A rare display of restraint.

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