Do your fingers sometimes freeze over the keyboard? Does the blank page seem to stare back at you with an accusing eye? The problem could be that you haven’t gathered enough information. You haven’t gotten the facts. Almost everything you will ever write must be built on a foundation of factual information. That includes opinion pieces and most certainly includes stories, plays, and novels. Before you write, track down the bits of information you are going to need. Get the prices you must quote, the names of people you will mention. Find out when it’s going to happen, where it will be, who’s going to be speaking, and whether or not dogs are allowed. You cannot write securely on any subject unless you have gathered far more information than you will use.
Often I arrived after other reporters. But almost invariably I would write my stories, hand them in, and drive home before the others. I was able to do this, not because I am a faster typist, but because I started writing before I got to the office. I wrote the first draft in my head during the drive to Marlboro. In my mind I planned the lead, decided what information I could ignore, and organized my material. By the time I reached the office, I knew what I wanted to write, and when I sat down at the typewriter, it was like pushing the “play” button on a tape recorder. Everything I had recorded in my brain came out.
The way to eliminate most of these traumas is to write in large blocks of time rather than to try to write for ten minutes here and there. Look at your schedule. When will you be left undisturbed for an hour or two? Can you lock the door? Turn off the phone? You will get more writing done in an undisturbed hour than you would in a dozen ten-minute spurts.
It is also important to find a quiet place to write. Few people can write their best when the phone is ringing and the kids are clamoring for whatever it is that makes kids clamor. A den in a noisy house would probably produce less writing than the backseat of a car in a quiet garage. So find someplace quiet.
Yes, copy. From time to time take a few paragraphs from something that you enjoyed reading and sit down at the computer or with a notebook and copy them word for word. You will find yourself suddenly aware of the choices the writer made. You will look at the work from the writer’s point of view. In time you will feel like an insider, and you will say, “I know why he chose this word; I know why he made two short sentences here instead of one long one.” You will become more intimate with the writer’s words and with words in general, and your own writing will be better for it.
If you keep a journal, you will grow as a writer, and you will find that sooner or later, no matter what you have to write professionally, your personal experiences will play a part.
Keep in mind, however, that a journal can be far more than just a diary. You can take notes from a conversation. You can take notes while you’re reading, or eating at a restaurant. You can even take notes while you’re watching television.
A writing exercise can be almost anything that turns thoughts into words. Make a list of ten rhyming words. Describe the inside of a Ping-Pong ball. There are many online resources that offer free writing exercises and prompts. But whatever you do, do it in a noncritical way. Turn off the editor in your head. The exercise is not supposed to be polished prose any more than a warm-up run is supposed to set a world record.
Create a list of questions about your subject before you begin research, and keep related questions together. Go to many different sources for answers—even go to many sources for answers to a single question. Several answers to the same question are compelling when they are similar and fascinating when they are not.
Gather much more material than you will use. Just as high water pressure makes more water flow faster, the greater weight of material you have gathered will make the words flow faster.
As you create written material, whether you are photocopying at the library, transcribing taped interviews, or simply scribbling notes, write on one side of the paper only. That way you can slice up your material with a pair of scissors and rearrange it any way you want. While there are many computer programs to help writers organize and edit, you might be one who prefers to print out and work on hard copy.
But you should organize the material. Organizing will help lock in the logic of what you say, and it will speed the writing process. Organizing will help to create an overall unity in your story as well as several interior unities.
Some writers will not write a magazine article until they have constructed an outline that is longer than the article they intend to write. Other writers begin with no outline at all, though they probably have a vague outline in mind. How long or detailed your outline is depends on the scope of what you have to write and how secure you are with the material. But an outline is just a list of elements you want to put into your writing, and for any story or article you should make some sort of list, even if it’s just three words scribbled on a scrap of paper. Write some key words for the issues you want to cover, the facts you want to point to, the questions you want to pose. Glance at the list as you work. This will help you decide what to write next.
Do not write until you know why you are writing. What are your goals? Are you trying to make readers laugh? Are you trying to persuade them to buy a product? Are you trying to advise them? To prove an argument? To inform them so that they can make a decision? If you cannot answer the question “Why am I writing this?” then you cannot wisely choose words, provide facts, include or exclude humor. You must know what job you want done before you can pick the tools to do it. And if you cannot state clearly at least one reason for writing your story, article, or paper . . . don’t write it.
A lead should be provocative. It should have energy, excitement, an implicit promise that something is going to happen or that some interesting information will be revealed. It should create curiosity, get the reader asking questions.
A lead is not strong if it does not deliver on the promises it makes. Anybody can write a lead that will attract attention, but if the lead is not supported by what follows, it will do more harm than good.
Writing in the pyramid style means getting to the point at the top, putting the “who, what, when, where, and why” in the first paragraph, and developing the supporting information under it.
The topic sentence is commonly the first sentence in a paragraph. Deciding what to put in a paragraph and what to leave out will be easier if you first write a topic sentence. For each paragraph ask, “What do I want to say here? What point do I want to make? What question do I want to present?” Answer with a single general sentence. That is your topic sentence.
A bridge word is a word that is used in one paragraph and then repeated in the following transition. It shows you how the writer got from one thought to another, thus supplying you with a smooth bridge between thoughts. We use bridge words all the time to make conversations smooth.
Wordiness has two meanings for the writer. You are wordy when you are redundant, such as when you write, “Last May during the spring,” or “little kittens,” or “very unique.” Wordiness for the writer also means using long words when there are good short ones available, using uncommon words when familiar ones are handy, or using words that look like the work of a Scrabble champion, not a writer.
Brighten up your story with a metaphor you read in the Sunday paper. Make a point with an anecdote you heard at the barbershop. Let a character tell a joke you heard in a bar. But steal small, not big, and don’t steal from just one source. Someone once said that if you steal from one writer, it’s called plagiarism, but if you steal from several, it’s called research. So steal from everybody, but steal only a sentence or a phrase at a time. If you use much more than that, you must get permission and then give credit.
A novel ends when your protagonist has solved his or her problem. An opinion piece ends when your opinion has been expressed. An instructional memo ends when the reader has been instructed. When you have done what you came to do, stop. Do not linger at the door saying good-bye sixteen times.
How do you know when you have finished? Look at the last sentence and ask yourself, “What does the reader lose if I cross it out?” If the answer is “nothing” or “I don’t know,” then cross it out. Do the same thing with the next-to-last sentence, and so forth. When you get to the sentence that you must have, read it out loud. Is it a good closing sentence? Does it sound final? Is it pleasant to the ear? Does it leave the reader in the mood you intended? If so, you are done. If not, rewrite it so that it does. Then stop writing.
To write is to create music. The words you write make sounds, and when those sounds are in harmony, the writing will work. So think of your writing as music.
So mimic spoken language in the variety of its music, in the simplicity of its words, in the directness of its expression. But do not forfeit the enormous advantages of the written word. Writing provides time for contemplation. Use it well. In conversation the perfect word is not always there. In writing we can try out fifteen different words before we are satisfied. In conversation we spread our thoughts thin. In writing we can compress. So strive to make your writing sound like a conversation, but don’t make it an ordinary conversation. Make it a good one.
So write with a combination of short, medium, and long sentences. Create a sound that pleases the reader’s ear. Don’t just write words. Write music.
Look at the following letters from camp. Letter A tells; letter B shows. Which letter do you find more revealing: Which letter writer would you rather know—Irma, or Donna? Letter A Letter B Dear Jan, My new boyfriend, Arnold, is a terrific athlete. He is also incredibly smart, very sentimental, and sort of strange. Yours truly, Irma Dear Jan, My new boyfriend, Arnold, ran five miles to my cabin in the middle of that lightning storm last week. When he got here, he stood out in the rain and started shouting how he loves me in five different languages. Yours truly, Donna Show, don’t tell. Even in business letters and memos. You want Barbara Resnikoff to get a promotion, but you need the board’s approval. Which memo would Barbara Resnikoff prefer to have you send? Memo A Memo B Ms. Resnikoff has been loyal, hardworking, and helpful to the company. I think she deserves a promotion. Ms. Resnikoff turned down two offers from Westinghouse last year. She worked fourteen-hour weekends, and she saved the Renaldo account even after it was discovered that the rabbit warehouse was empty. She deserves a promotion.
Words that are part of the same information package are related, and they should be clustered together to avoid confusion. Adjectives should be placed near the nouns they describe so they don’t appear to be describing some other noun. Likewise, adverbs should be close to the verbs they modify, and dependent clauses should be near the words on which they depend for meaning.
Transitions of Time Transitions of Place The following week . . . On the other side of the mountain . . . In December of that year . . . In Black Eagle, Montana . . . By the time Renaldo arrived . . . Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . . After the prom . . . When we got to Archie’s place . . . Twenty years later . . . From my house I could tell . . . Transitions of Subject Consequently . . . In this manner . . . On the other hand . . . In contrast to . . . Despite all this . . .
Emphatic words are those words you want the reader to pay special attention to. They contain the information you are most eager to communicate. You can get that extra attention for those words by placing them at the end of the sentence.
So try to put humanity into everything you write. There are times when you cannot comfortably dress your prose in flesh and blood, but those times are rare. Even a how-to article is about a person named “you.” Don’t write about the new bookkeeping system. Write about how the new bookkeeping system will affect people. If you are writing about the welfare crisis, begin with an anecdote about one family that lives in a car because they cannot pay rent out of their small welfare check. If you are writing a blog to attract new members to your church, don’t write about the steeple and the organ. Write about the people who come to church suppers, the people who volunteer for committees, the people your readers will meet if they show up for church on Sunday.
Few things are duller than a man or woman without an opinion. Your opinion is not always appropriate, but often it is the thing that gives writing its life and color. In fact, it is frequently dishonest to hide your opinion because it will find its way into your writing anyhow by influencing your choice of what material to include and what to ignore. I often color my stories with my opinion. I think it makes for more interesting writing. But I try to be fair, also. If I put my opinion into the story, I also include opinions of people who don’t agree with me.
When you begin to write, you also begin in subtle ways to set down a list of rules, just as you set down the rules at the start of a game. Through your title or first paragraph you communicate to the reader certain guidelines about the subject, the scope, or the tone of the story. If your title is “Black Mayors in America,” you have set a rule that says, “Everything in this story is related to black mayors in America,” and you will be violating that rule if you write too heavily about mayors who were not black, black people who were not mayors, or black mayors who were not in America.
Writing a short, colorful anecdote is one of the most compelling ways to begin an article, query letter, or business proposal, and a couple of well-placed anecdotes in your longer stories will break the lock of formality and win your reader’s affection as well as his or her attention.
A good title will make people curious. Instead of “The Marketing of Italian Cuisine,” try “How to Sell a Meatball to Your Mother.” A good title is a guide. Revealing something about your content separates the appropriate readers for your story from those who would have no interest in it. “A Football Rivalry” is too broad. Use “The Army-Navy Game: A Gridiron Fight for the Honor of the Corps.” A good title is short. Don’t write, “Investigative Techniques and Conclusions Concerning the Proposal to Extend Client Services.” Write, “Results of the Client Survey.” A good title hints at the limits of information in the story; that is, it suggests the slant. Don’t write, “How Sports Enriched My Religious Life.” Write, “A Christian Looks at Baseball.” A good title should reveal information, not hide it. Don’t write, “Tips on an Important Purchase.” Write, “Six Ways to Save Money Buying a House.”
Do not try to write everything about your subject. All subjects are inexhaustible. If you try to write on every aspect of your subject, you will ramble. You will get lost in the writing, your wastebasket will overflow, and you will become a crazy person. Tie yourself to a specific idea about your subject, some aspect that is manageable.
Cross out every sentence until you come to one you cannot do without. That is your beginning.