Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Being Good and Shortcuts

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

I recently read a fantastic blog post from Scott Lynch entitled: Being good can be a shortcut. There is no shortcut to being good.

Give this post a read because he lays out the straight dirt on becoming a better writer. I won't steal his thunder, but, as I said in my previous post, Writing is Hard. But it is so worth it!

Friday, October 14, 2016

Writing is Hard, But Makes Good Reading

Screenshot courtesy of YouTube
“It’s easy to make things look hard, but hard to make things look easy.” Helene Lagerberg

I am a huge soccer fan. I especially love to watch the US Men’s National team play. At this past summer’s Copa America tournament, Lionel Messi, one of the greatest players of all time, placed a perfect free kick in the upper 90, just beyond USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan’s fingertips.

As a master on the ball, Messi is so enjoyable to watch because he makes hard skills look effortless. Watching the replay, you can imagine yourself stepping and doing the same thing. However when watching this spectacular shot, you don’t see the years of hard work and practice, the lifetime of training that preceded his shot.

I Could’ve Written That
Writing is also a skill that when done well, readers say, ‘I could’ve written that.’ But while stringing words together might be easy, doing it really well is hard. And writing something spectacular is rare and requires years of practice and the equivalent of the writer’s blood, sweat and tears.

No one sees the lonely hours where the writer toils away, writing things they don’t care about for clients who pay peanuts. Their years of repetition and hidden travail goes unnoticed. And like Lionel Messi who makes his on-field skills look so easy, the most skillful writers pour their heart and soul into their works to make them read effortlessly.

As Nathaniel Hawthorne said, “Easy reading is damn hard writing.”

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Make Every Word Count (omit needless words)


 Wikipedia
Used for almost a century, William Strunk, Jr.’s The Elements of Style has helped many writers to hone their craft. Over the next few months, I’ll be featuring sections from the book. Today, we look at Section 13: Omit needless words.

In this section, Strunk says, “Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that he make every word tell.”
 

Common Phrases
Strunk offers suggestions for omitting words in common phrases. A phrase is followed by it's concise replacement:

 the question as to whether → whether (the question whether)

 there is no doubt but that → no doubt (doubtless)

 he is a man who → he

 in a hasty manner → hastily

 this is a subject which → this subject

 His story is a strange one. → His story is strange.

He suggests that, “the expression the fact that should be revised out of every sentence in which it occurs,” and gives examples:

 owing to the fact that → since (because)

 in spite of the fact that → though (although)

 call your attention to the fact that → remind you (notify you)

 I was unaware of the fact that → I was unaware that (did not know)

  the fact that I had arrived → my arrival

Strunk also suggests that stock phrases like Who is and which was, “are often superfluous.”

 His brother, who is a member of the same firm  →  His brother, a member of the same firm

 Trafalgar, which was Nelson's last battle  →  Trafalgar, Nelson's last battle
 

Single Ideas 
Regarding a passage or paragraph, Strunk says, “A common violation of conciseness is the presentation of a single complex idea, step by step, in a series of sentences or independent clauses which might to advantage be combined into one.” The example below shows how half the words can communicate the same idea without losing meaning: 

Macbeth was very ambitious. This led him to wish to become king of Scotland. The witches told him that this wish of his would come true. The king of Scotland at this time was Duncan. Encouraged by his wife, Macbeth murdered Duncan. He was thus enabled to succeed Duncan as king. (51 words.) 

Encouraged by his wife, Macbeth achieved his ambition and realized the prediction of the witches by murdering Duncan and becoming king of Scotland in his place. (26 words.) 

Fewer Words = Better Writing 
According to Strunk, omitting words makes your writing tighter, more concise and easier to read. Try omitting words and making every word count. To help you identify fillers and ‘crutches', these sites offer lists of omittable words: