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xy·lem - noun Botany . a compound tissue in vascular plants that helps provide support and that conducts water and nutrients upward from the roots, consisting of tracheids, vessels, parenchyma cells, and woody fibers.
No, I’m not going to talk about flowers and such, I’m just going to allude to their make up. Like the xylem in plants, the human vascular system is riddled with blood vessels that carry life giving fluids through our bodies.
Every bit of knowledge we gain about writing acts in the same way. We study craft books, attend seminars, read endless articles, and some of us have degrees in writing. However, all of this knowledge is a waste of time if it isn’t used in some way. It’s one thing to learn new things and quite another to apply knowledge in such a way as to enrich our writing.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t take a scatter-shot approach with literary devices in my manuscripts, but if I find something useful to my story, I definitely try to make it work. For example, I was fascinated when I found out how to structure my sentences in such a way that I didn’t need to add he said/she said. Since then I’ve learned tons of stuff. I don’t use every bit of learning all the time, but the implements in my writing tool box are like the xylem in plants, breathing life into my sentences and suffusing my prose with meaning.
How do you work all the shiny new stuff you learn into your writing? The deft hand method or the leaden-foot-on-the-gas syndrome?
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I’m thowing in Xa·vi·er 'cause I have no X foods and it’s the name of a scrumptious character in my WiP. This is one time when I didn’t look up the meaning of the name before I used it. I just thought it fitting for the male lead. Strange thing about this particular novel – both male and female leads have saintly names, however, their actions are anything but…
Anyhow, this guy wears locks and in my mind's eye is a combo of the guy on the left and the guy below.
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Meaning according to Dictionary.com
–noun
