An Alphabet of Better Writing # Y

Y is for...Yarn

A story, a traveller's tale, an anecdote.  Yarn.  The word has associations of length, of being something rambling and relaxed, of something oral perhaps, of something made up as it goes along. There may even be hints of exaggeration -- someone who is spinning a bit of a yarn is not entirely to be believed.

You need a number of individual threads to make a yarn, nimble fingers and a great deal of patience and ingenuity. You need to be able to keep several different strands in play at the same time -- you can't leave one hanging, because that will create a weakness. All of this is true in fiction writing, where the spun thread might be the plot you are constructing, twisting different narratives into something tensile and strong, or it might be something as simple and basic as a sentence, fine, taut and beautifully constructed.

The best yarn  is individually crafted from fine materials (none of this mass-produced, machine-made polyester nonsense).  Make the best of all the elements at your disposal, and start spinning...