More moderate epigram may be found in Emerson and Carlyle.
Paradox is something that we should use only on special occasion.
CHAPTER IX.
THE STYLE OF FICTION:
Narrative, Description, and Dialogue.
Dickens.
In fiction there are three different kinds of writing which must be blended
with a fine skill, and this fact makes fiction so much the more difficult
than any other sort of writing. History is largely narrative, pure and
simple, newspaper articles are description, dramas are dialogue, but
fiction must unite in a way peculiar to itself the niceties of all three.
We must take each style separately and master it thoroughly before
trying to combine the three in a work of fiction. The simplest is
narrative, and consists chiefly in the ability to tell a plain story
straight on to the end, just as in conversation Neighbor Gossip comes
and tells a long story to her friend the Listener. A writer will gain
this skill if he practise on writing out tales or stories just as nearly
as possible as a child would do it, supposing the child had a sufficient
vocabulary. Letter-writing, when one is away from home and wishes
to tell his intimate friends all that has happened to him,
is practice of just this sort, and the best practice.
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