Writing With Absolutes - Why Master Writers Use Them

Absolute Phrases will Build Your Writing Crackle.

Absolute phrases add a sense of action and simultaneity to the key notion in a clause or sentence. They are, without the need of a doubt, the most helpful tool that a writer has to depict scenes filled with facts that build action and suspense. No other tool exists that is extra efficacious.

Absolutely nothing enlivens a scene as nicely placed Absolutes.

Via the apprehension of particulars all human beings-however in particular, readers-filter entire scenes in order to grasp, evaluate, and pronounce judgments around actions, locations, and mind.

What provides versatility and flexibility to the Absolute phrase is that it might be embedded merely around anyplace in the clause or sentence (starting, middle, or finish). Absolute phrases provide the significantly required information at the proper time and the proper place.

Observe-in the instance beneath-how nouns and the present participle interact:

The trees seemed to advance-to close ranks-as if in menacing formation, branches flailing, trunks forming cavities resembling enormous distorted mouths from which the most horrifying and ungodly screams seemed to situation, filling the swamp with a hellish cacophony (M. Guerrero, Poison Pill, chapter 35, p210).

Branches flailing, trunks forming cavities, filling the swamp-are Absolute phrases. Although nouns are combined with the present participle (verbs ending in -ing), the final results are Absolute phrases.

Absolute phrases are as well referred to as Absolute Nominative, or just Absolutes.

They-absolutes-highlight the immediacy of the action, causing it to unfold correct in front of the readers' eyes. However how can these bits of specifics-specifics which are so unrelated to the key thought, even illogical one particular may say-be so loosely tacked on?

Thankfully for writers, the English language makes it possible for for this form of non sequitur. It is a part of the language that not even grammarians like Otto Jesperson and Henry W. Fowler, or linguists (like Noam Chomsky) were capable to clarify with convincing adequacy; a conundrum as puzzling as 'why do humans develop arms and not wings?'

Writers should really be thankful for such aberrations of the English language, and take benefit of them.

In addition to the present participle form of the verb (tears coursing down her cheeks), we could too use the previous participle to form an additional variation of the Absolute: teeth clenched, box cutter tightly gripped in her hand.

Simply because numerous grammar and syntax textbooks start the discussion of Absolute Phrases with convoluted definitions, regrettably several readers abandon the subject, by no means to revisit it once more. So, let's appear at what Absolutes do, what they achieve, and then at the finish of the chapter we'll try a operating definition.

Types of the Absolute

Though Absolute Phrases might be written in several techniques, the following 4 usages are the most prevalent:

(1) Noun and the present participle: branches flailing.

(2) Noun and a previous participle: teeth clenched.

(3) Noun and a prepositional phrase: a blade in her hand.

(four) Noun and an adjective or adverb: ears forward.

Absolutes: Group (1) - Noun + Present Participle

• The thug saw him and hurried to the waiting Honda, which took off with a loud squeal, screeching and lurching forward, the engine revving up. (M. Guerrero, Poison Pill, chapter 3, p22).
• Basically then Morales opened his eyes only to see the old man's harsh stare, his droopy eyelid twitching. (N. Guerrero, Poison Pill, chapter 27, p145).

As you can see in the above instance, the noun eyelid is certified by 'his droopy,' implying that any qualifier might either antecede or follow the noun; but, this fact does not negate that the phrase is an Absolute Phrase formed by a Noun + Present Participle.

• The bullet ripped the stick out of the big man's lips hitting the wall with a thud, Gil's lips turning ashen, teeth chattering, and clicking which includes gag dentures. (M. Guerrero, Poison Pill, chapter 33, p193).
• Yet simply as he mentioned this, the floor beneath the hand truck caved in, the smile fading off his face. (M. Guerrero Poison Pill, chapter 29, p162).
• "And Lord Julian, then?" he asked, his eyes watching her, vibrant as sapphires in that copper-coloured face. (R. Sabatini, Captain Blood, chapter XXXI, p337).
• He wore a black, quick mid-riff tank top rated beneath his black leather jacket, his pale face glowing with unnatural light, thin lips twisting in an evil smile. (M. Guerrero, Poison Pill, chapter 15, p89).
• Cowboy felt the frigid mud shifting and tugging downward at his feet, sucking and crushing about his waist and chest, enormous bubbles surfacing, gurgling and popping about him, filling his nostrils with the vilest putrid stench. (M. Guerrero, Poison Pill, chapter 29, p162).
• He did points to me that I'd only read in books, and at the finish of it, legs trembling, heart thudding, I laughed and he buried his face against my belly, laughing too. (Sue Grafton, 'A' is for Alibi, p177).

By now you ought to have noted how the -ing participials cause the nouns to zoom in and come to be exceptionally visible.

• As Joey and Lenox strode to their van, Cowboy felt eyes watching him, his rat-tail stiffening, and a chill operating down his spine. (M. Guerrero, Poison Pill, chapter 18, p103).

Though the narrator purports to be objective and camera-which includes in his observations, he manages to inject inner-state information that only an omniscient narrator may know. This technique empowers the writer to get inside the character's thoughts, physique, and even his central nervous technique: "a chill operating down his spine."

• We puttered previous the barn, the diesel thumping, the trailer creaking, and turned south toward the decrease forty, a tract subsequent to Siler's Creek. (John Grisham, A Painted Property, p43).

Grisham, by his adroit use of 2 Absolutes (diesel thumping and trailer creaking), augments the acoustics of the passing scene. Had he selected to merely say, "We puttered previous the barn, and turned south..." the scene would have fallen dead on arrival.

Note how Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice makes use of the Absolute to objectify an otherwise internal sensation felt by a character:

• Elizabeth created no answer, and walked on, her heart swelling with indignation.

And really feel the chills Bram Stoker brings to the reader as he depicts count Dracula's wrath:

• As my eyes opened involuntarily I saw his sturdy hand grasp the slender neck of the fair lady and with giant's power draw it back, the blue eyes transformed with fury, the white teeth champing with rage, and the fair cheeks blazing red with passion.

The Absolute "the blue eyes transformed with fury," is discussed under, as it belongs to Group (2), Because 'transformed' is a previous participle rather than a present participle.

To conclude this section, see how Tolstoy makes use of this absolute building in his War and Peace:

• "Do you or do you not know exactly where that will is?" insisted Prince Vasili, his cheeks twitching a lot more than ever.
• Pierre obediently sat down, his eyes asking if he had been carrying out appropriate.
• The place selected for the duel was some eighty paces from the road, exactly where the sleighs were left in a modest clearing in the pine forest covered with melting snow, the frost possessing begun to break in the course of the final couple of days.

Absolutes: Group (2) - Noun + Previous Participle

Much less dramatic than the -ing Absolute is the previous participle Absolute. Even though the former causes the action of the noun to unfold in front of the reader's eyes, the latter conjures up an picture of one thing that has currently occurred.

• His head-piece was gone, his breastplate dinted, his correct sleeve a rag hanging from his shoulder around a naked arm. (R. Sabatini, Captain Blood, chapter XXX, p331).
• "I will verify with them, Joey, and then I will let you know. Exactly where are you organizing to bury them?" he asked, his forehead wrinkled with curiosity. (M. Guerrero, Poison Pill, chapter 29, p159).
• ...he charged straight on howling with wild fury, arms flailing, and eyes closed. (M Guerrero, Poison Pill, chapter 36, p230).
• In his thoughts he saw the image of the boy that the police photographer had taken, his flesh eaten black by the flames. (Elizabeth George, In Pursuit of the Appropriate Sinner, p267).
• His men stood, grinning, awaiting orders, the 2 prisoners now speedy pinioned. (R. Sabatini, Captain Blood, chapter II, p16).

Here's an instance from a master story-teller:

• Her pal, Pixie Dark, was backing away from the complete deal, tiny white hands clasped involving her breasts, eyes wide. (Stephen King, Cell, chapter 2, p8).

Stephen King wrote a top rated seller book on writing; but, nowhere will you obtain --in this famed book-- one particular word around Absolutes. Go figure.

Marciano Guerrero

Retired Investment Banker, Corporate Controller, graduate of Columbia University, and Vietnam Vet (1967-1968).

Notice that I seldom open my sentence with either a noun, a pronoun, or an short article. The writing approaches I use in writing stories and articles are all explained in:

Sentence Openers [http://sentenceopeners.com]