The Power of Invention

"Our Lady of Peace" by ZZ Packer from the collection Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

She found herself sharking the room, telling duos here and trios there that they should not be talking about their neon fingernail polish or the Mos Def lyrics in front of them, but the novel at hand, Their Eyes Were Watching God.

“Our Lady of Peace,” by ZZ Packer from the collection Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

In this short story, Lynnea enrolls in a teaching program that promises certification in a single summer. Eight weeks later, she’s teaching freshman English at an inner-city Baltimore school. She finishes her first week, and though the students are rowdy and don’t pay attention to her, she thinks she can do it. Week two, she’s yelling and ready to quit.

In Packer’s sentence, Lynnea is still composed, handling the class as she was taught, believing she can do this job. The sentence simulates composure and even eloquence with balance, the pairing of two things:

1. telling duos here (and)

2. [telling] trios there

Followed by more balance: “they should not be talking about their:”

1. neon fingernail polish (and)

2. Mos Def lyrics

Balance is a subset of parallelism, with similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses.

“The matching of phrase against phrase, clause against clause, lends an unmistakable eloquence to prose,” writes Richard D. Altick in Preface to Critical Reading.

But with the word “sharking,” we sense her composure is on shaky ground. “Sharking” is an invented word, built from the noun “shark,” and turned into a present participle to describe “herself.” The technique is called anthimeria, the substitution of one part of speech for another. The originality catches the eye and ear, and now the sentence is infused with the character’s language and is in contrast to the balance and eloquence. With this word, we begin to experience a unique individual. While it has some urban street lingo meaning (according to Wikipedia), it compares Lynnea’s movements in the classroom to a shark, prowling and patrolling, watching for the transgressions.

More humor comes in through antithesis or opposites. Parker contrasts the frivolous and the serious: what the students are doing—talking about neon nail polish and Mos Def lyrics—and what they should be doing, reading Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. The antithesis also creates tension, and it feels like whatever balance the protagonist has will soon be lost.

ZZ Packer

Your Turn

Open with a base clause, the subject and verb predicate. Since we’re practicing, you can begin with “She found herself.”

Use anthimeria, to modify “herself,” using one part of speech for another. Like Packer, you can take a noun and add an -ing. This is functioning as a present participle.

Add another present participle—a verb + ing. Can you add balance?

Now add a relative clause beginning with “that.” For your verb, use “should,” which will help set up the contrast. The contrast is between what someone is doing and what they should be doing. Can you use more balance?

Try it!

How did it go?

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About Me

I’ve taught “Style in Fiction,” “Word for Word,” and “Cultivating Your Prose” at the University of San Francisco and Stanford Continuing Studies since 2007.

My short story collection, In this Ravishing World, won the W.S. Porter Prize and the Prism Prize for Climate Literature and was published in July 2024. My award-winning novel, Afterword, was published in May 2023. My novel, The Translator, was a finalist for the William Saroyan International Writing Prize, and The Painting, a finalist for the Northern California Book Award. New second editions of my nonfiction books, How to Write Stunning Sentences and Stunning Sentences: A Creative Writing Journal, are coming in January 2026. You can preorder now.

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