How to Write Like C. S. Lewis (part 2)
Last week, I gave some initial advice about how to write like C. S. Lewis but we still need to think of a topic to write about. A good place to start is with some of the Narnian books we find in the Chronicles of Narnia:
The Life and Letters of Silenus (or Nymphs and Their Ways)
Men, Monks and Gamekeepers; a Study in Popular Legend (or Is Man a Myth?)
Grammatical Garden (or The Arbour of Accidence pleasantlie open’d to Tender Wits) by Pulverulentus Siccus
A History of Calormen
Can you invent any more titles for books that may have been written in Narnia?
Could you write the first page of one of those books?
Could you write the first page(s) of a Narnian book about Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy?
Here are some other topics C. S. Lewis has dangled in front of us:
In Prince Caspian, Lucy and Susan talk about their lives in Narnia. They mention various events that the narrator has not yet told us about in any detail:
“It’s like old times,” said Lucy. “Do you remember our voyage to Terebinthia – and Galma – and Seven Isles – and the Lone Islands?”
“Yes,” said Susan, “and our great ship the Splendour Hyaline, with the swan’s head at her prow and the carved swan’s wings coming back almost to her waist?”
“And the silken sails, and the great stern lanterns?”
“And the feasts on the poop and the musicians.”
“Do you remember when we had the musicians up in the rigging playing flutes so that it sounded like music out of the sky?”
Could you tell the story of that voyage?
So, we’ve got a topic or three but how do we write about them?
Let’s think about how Lewis makes each character distinctive. Do you remember how Trumpkin speaks?
Horns and halibuts!
Whistles and whirligigs!
Soup and celery!
Thimbles and thunderstorms!
Cobbles and kettledrums!
Wraiths and wreckage!
Weights and water-bottles!
Crows and crockery!
Can you write about how Trumpkin got on governing Narnia while Prince Caspian was away on the Dawn Treader? You might need to make up some new expressions for him.
Now think about how other characters speak. How, for example, does Bree speak? What is distinctive about the way he phrases things? And what about Lasaraleen? Or Reepicheep?
Can you create a new character and give him or her a distinctive way of speaking?
There are lots of exercises here. Take your time in exploring them. Pick one topic and give it a go. Then leave it, return to it, edit it and see what it looks like. Above all, enjoy playing around with these ideas. It’s great fun writing and it’s great fun writing like C. S. Lewis.