Writing exercise: modernising a classic
Writing exercise: modernising a classic
An exercise in rewriting Wuthering Heights into a modern style, and how this helps you find your own voice.
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is a stone cold Gothic classic. Compared to the openings of Frankenstein or Dracula, which amble around their philosophy and locations, Wuthering Heights leaps directly into the gloomy crux of the story.
While Wuthering Heights isn’t so heavy on the supernatural as its straight-up horror peers (although there’s a memorable ghostly incident in there too) it contains psychological torment, love, and utterly black-hearted spite.
So… let’s play with it!
The writing exercise is this:
Take a portion from a piece of classic literature and rewrite it in a modern style.
This is the opening page-ish of Wuthering Heights:
1801—I have just returned from a visit to my landlord—the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with. This is certainly a beautiful country! In all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of society. A perfect misanthropist’s Heaven—and Mr. Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between us. A capital fellow! He little imagined how my heart warmed towards him when I beheld his black eyes withdraw so suspiciously under their brows, as I rode up, and when his fingers sheltered themselves, with a jealous resolution, still further in his waistcoat, as I announced my name.
“Mr. Heathcliff?” I said.
A nod was the answer.
“Mr. Lockwood, your new tenant, sir. I do myself the honour of calling as soon as possible after my arrival, to express the hope that I have not inconvenienced you by my perseverance in soliciting the occupation of Thrushcross Grange: I heard yesterday you had had some thoughts—”
“Thrushcross Grange is my own, sir,” he interrupted, wincing. “I should not allow any one to inconvenience me, if I could hinder it—walk in!”
The “walk in” was uttered with closed teeth, and expressed the sentiment, “Go to the Deuce!” even the gate over which he leant manifested no sympathising movement to the words; and I think that circumstance determined me to accept the invitation: I felt interested in a man who seemed more exaggeratedly reserved than myself.
Step 1: understand what’s going on
What is the author describing and trying to tell the reader in the section?
What happens?
What is implied?
Here we have Lockwood explaining, in the form of a letter, his first encounter with his antisocial landlord, Heathcliff.
We’ve established this is an isolated rural location.
Lockwood claims to be equally antisocial as Heathcliff, but he’s cheerfully recounting the story and gives the impression that he’s quite chatty — compare the lengths of their dialogue. Lockwood spends 48 words saying ‘Hello, I’m your tenant’, which Heathcliff interrupts, because it appears that Lockwood won’t stop otherwise.
Not only does Heathcliff interrupt, “he interrupted, wincing.” Heathcliff winces at the loquaciousness of Lockwood. They are clearly very different people.
Heathcliff’s response is 21 words, most of which are saying ‘If I had a choice, I wouldn’t have you here’, and the final commanding words ‘walk in’ are not bracketed by any softening courtesies such as ‘do come in, please’.
In contrast to Lockwood, Heathcliff appears abrupt, brooding, potentially dangerous, and generally bad-tempered.
Brontë’s language is quite direct for its period, but nonetheless today it would be considered a bit stately.
Step 2: make some stylistic choices
How much language do you want to change/modernise?
Do you want refine the characters?
Do you want to increase foreshadowing?
Do you want to cut superfluous detail that might distract (or even bore) a modern reader?
Are any grammatical modernisations needed?
… And so on.
For my pass on this section of Wuthering Heights, I want to make the text more approachable for a modern audience, so I’m going to alter the grammar and shorten things.
The characters are already awesome, but I might play up the contrast just a little more.
There’s already a lot of foreboding gloom here, so probably no need to add anything extra in terms of foreshadowing.
If you fancy trying this exercise with this same piece of text, now’s the time to do that, because I’m going to give you my example below.
Okay? Let’s go.
Step 3: rewrite!
Here’s my try at rewriting a classic (no way this could ever go badly!) :
1801—I just got back from meeting my landlord—the only person who lives anywhere nearby my new home. In all of England, I don’t think I could have found another place were the degree of beauty is rivalled by only by its isolation from society. If you want to get away from people, it’s heaven—and Mr Heathcliff enjoys that as much as I do. I feel like I’ve met a real kindred spirit.
No doubt he expected me to be affronted when I rode towards him and saw his glowering black eyes and his hands jammed into his waistcoat, but still I called his name: “Mr. Heathcliff?”
A nod was the answer.
“Mr Lockwood. I’m your new tenant. I came to find you as soon as possible after my arrival, and apologise if my perseverance in trying to rent Thrushcross Grange was in any way irritating for you. I assure you that was not my intent at all, and I heard yesterday you were considering this again—”
“Thrushcross Grange is my own” he interrupted, wincing. “I don’t tolerate people irritating me, unless there’s no other path. Come on.”
“Come on” was muttered through clenched teeth, as if he’d prefer to say “Go to hell.” The gate he leant on didn’t move an inch to invite me through. Heathcliff was clear in his feelings, but I was charmed: here was a man yet more antisocial than myself, and I desperately wanted to know him better.
Step 4: reflect
This is the important part! We learn by doing things, but we embed and improve our skills by reflecting on them.
Key questions for reflecting on a piece of work:
What do I like about what I’ve done?
What do I think could have gone better?
What might I change, or do the same, in future based on this experience?
For the example above:
The good:
I like the blend of newer grammar with the older formality - I added ‘I assure you’ to keep the tone and verbosity of Lockwood’s introduction, while retaining the modern readability. I like that I’ve removed the exclamation marks from the original text. They work in Brontë’s writing, but seem excessive for modern styles.
The bad:
I probably could have strayed slightly further from the original, because there are some clunky phrases where I’ve shortened a sentiment without truly reworking it, such as in the sentence:
I feel like I’ve met a real kindred spirit.
It’s too on-the-nose compared to the original:
Mr. Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between us
My version is shorter, but there’s definitely a loss in the Gothic tone — ‘divide the desolation between us’ is wonderful phrasing.
Likewise, the line were Heathcliff skirts around whether he’s inconvenienced by Lockwood’s presence is brilliantly balanced by Brontë. Here’s the original:
I should not allow any one to inconvenience me, if I could hinder it
It’s succinct in the way it says that Heathcliff doesn’t suffer fools unless he is absolutely forced to, and there’s the implication this might be one of those times. Heathcliff is throwing masterful shade here, and Lockwood doesn’t notice it at all.
Lessons I can take from this:
Brontë got to the heart of her story straight away.
She paints her characters with very broad strokes — Lockwood thinks he’s charismatic and mysterious while being an open book, and Heathcliff hates people but they find themselves drawn to him. If he could change this, he would, but it’s his nature and he hates it. This tension is core to the story. When Cathy falls in love with Heathcliff, she’s feeling the same pull to the tall, dark, and handsome loner.
Brontë establishes tone and location with a few sparse and choice details: the place is beautiful, isolated, and (from one perspective) desolate.
It’s worth noting too that the name ‘Heathcliff’ was invented for this novel. It’s unclear where the character ends and the landscape begins. Heathcliff doesn’t want anyone nearby unless he must tolerate them, just like heathland and cliffs have a beauty that both charms and kills the unwary.
In my own writing, I need to get to the crux of the character and the story from the very start. A few well chosen words, along with good character names, can be the key. I can also see that my tendency for direct clarity might lose some of the appeal of a more embodied phrasing.
Step 5: Try it yourself!
Find something classic and try rewriting it your way.
You don’t need to spend hours on this, but it will help you both appreciate the original text and to better understand your own writing voice.
I used the opening of a novel because I enjoy seeing how others manage this crucial section of writing, but you can pick a section from anywhere.
Have fun!
That’s it for this week. Next week I’ll be back, probably with a new short story.
I’d hoped to get one of my old animations converted and onto YouTube in the next month or two, but I’ve just had a big workload given to me, so we’ll see if I find the time.
Thanks for reading, go be excellent to each other!
Mata xxx