Ignore 'em! I say go for it! One of the first titles for something I'm working on was - Boy 693 - and that's what he was called for most of the book.
@Wreybies - I agree with Peach above. Prisoner ID could work very well. My friend write an entire prologue where her protag is referred to by her prisoner ID and the whole thing was written in the format of a report. It really helped create suspense. I loved it. Keep 313! That's more of a stylistic choice, rather than a question of clarity.
First, I'm familiar with Brooks Landon's Building Great Sentences, because I have the Teaching Company course he taught based on it. He's got a ton of good, clear advice. I think @waitingforzion is taking the wrong lessons from it. He's thinking that the book justifies writing long sentences willy-nilly, instead of well-organized long sentences. There is a difference. Also, it's important to note that sentences should not usually be the unit of composition. Paragraphs are better for that function. @waitingforzion, do you read much modern fiction? I mean, fiction written in the past fifty years or so. If not, I suggest you do so, paying close attention to how the best writers of the past half-century have structured their paragraphs. It seems to me that you're taking Book One piano lessons and are wondering why you can't seem to play Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata yet. It's a technically demanding piece and you haven't developed the skills necessary to play it yet. Start small. Play what you can and practice. In writing terms, before you try to write Ulysses, do what Joyce did: write Dubliners. He's one of the greatest writers in English of all time, but he started small and simple to learn his craft. It took him a couple of books' worth of work before he could write his masterpiece. Not to mix metaphors too much, but don't jump into the deep end before you learn to swim.
Lately, I have been really impatient when it comes to reading books. I hope you can recommend me some short fiction books, preferably fantasy, that don't require an extensive vocabulary to read. Also, I have a problem when it comes to writing paragraphs. I keep forgetting how they are supposed to be structured. It seems impossible for me to write an outline, because I can't grasp how five sentences can fit into five words. It is some kind of mental block I think. I know that I should write the topic sentence first, and then elaborate on it, but even that concept eludes me sometimes. I feel like I want to write paragraphs that don't work that way, and that would wind up being one sentence long, because they would lack the need for elaboration, and I would move to a new topic in the very next sentence. My mind is all messed up. I think I would benefit from a good book recommendation of structuring paragraphs and outlines and what the paragraphs fit into. Thanks for still trying to help me and not getting frustrated that I am not getting it right away.
This puzzles me. If your vocabulary isn't extensive, why do you use so many words that aren't in most people's everyday vocabulary? Are you editing your writing with a thesaurus? If so, I strongly recommend that you stop.
Hm. I just had a look at Peter Pan, to remind myself of what it's like. It's by J.M. Barrie, published around 1906. It's not the least bit modern. It has an old-fashioned mood and words and long, complex sentences. But it's clear, understandable, and readable. It might be an interesting transition from the older works that you hope to emulate, and modern writing. A further advantage is that it's out of copyright, at least in the United States, so you can find it online, for free. The first two paragraphs, just to give you a feel: All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, "Oh, why can't you remain like this for ever!" This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end. Of course they lived at 14, and until Wendy came her mother was the chief one. She was a lovely lady, with a romantic mind and such a sweet mocking mouth. Her romantic mind was like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the puzzling East, however many you discover there is always one more; and her sweet mocking mouth had one kiss on it that Wendy could never get, though there is was, perfectly conspicuous in the right-hand corner.
Go into your local library and ask for the fantasy section. Take out half-a-dozen books. Taste and try. Tell us how you get on.
Make room in your life for reading. That's important. They aren't "supposed" to be structured in any one particular way. Get that thought out of your mind. Write free-flowing prose and revise it until it sings. Then don't write outlines. If trying to write an outline is getting in your way, then it is not helping you. Do what helps you, not what hinders you. That's the way grade-school kids are taught to write essays - very simple-minded and one-dimensional. It's not the way fiction writers write fiction. Forget it. Write. Revisit the concept later if you want, just to see if it has any relevance to what you're trying to do. If it doesn't, don't worry about it. In my experience, I'd write a one-sentence paragraph and assume I'd need no elaboration. I think a great many other novices feel the same way, and you'll find examples on this forum in the Writing Workshop in which every paragraph is about one sentence long. People generally think it's too sparse. What I would do in these cases is stop and stare into space a bit, just trying to imagine my scene in as much detail as I could. Then I'd ask myself, "Have I really said enough in this one sentence?" And the answer would always be no, obviously not. For example, I might be describing a drag race. The sentence might be, "The light turned green, and the two cars rocketed toward the finish line." Have I said enough? Sure, maybe for a newspaper story. But there are details I could include that would make the scene richer and more vivid for the reader. I could talk about the roar of the engines. The black streaks left by the tires on the pavement. The smell of burned rubber and exhaust fumes. The cheer of the crowd. The sweat of the drivers' hands, the drivers glad they're wearing gloves. The way the acceleration is so great the front wheels come off the ground for a second. Etc. etc. etc. The one-sentence paragraph builds into a whole image, something vivid, bright, and (hopefully) exciting. No, I don't think you would. I think the books on structuring paragraphs are precisely the things that are preventing you from actually writing paragraphs. I'm not saying they have no value, but I am saying they have no value to you right now. What you would benefit from is reading some well-written fiction. See how the professionals - the literary artists - handle the kinds of problems you keep facing. Set aside the how-to books until you have enough practical context to understand the lessons they're trying to impart. Evaluate those lessons, and if they don't help you, forget them. If they do, great. You're quite welcome.
