Day 1114 – On Writing

Monday, February 5, 2024

I read a short piece by a buddy of mine. It was terrific. I commented that it was and suggested he should write more. He was kind of blown away. I was blown away that he was blown away…

This is for all you who aspire to write.

What made that piece so good was I could hear his voice. By that I mean literally I could hear it as if he were talking to me telling me the story. And the story – that’s important. It’s important to have a story. A story should have a point. Most stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end with a conclusion that wraps the whole thing up.

They don’t have to be long, but they can be. They shouldn’t wander around. Especially, with today’s audiences and their short attention spans.

Robert McKee who wrote the only book you need on writing* said it this way, and I paraphrase – all stories (films, novels) should be three act plays, and if they aren’t you better have a damn good reason why they aren’t. Many films get flabby in act two (the longest and largest act) because they pack it with noise and action that has nothing to do with the story.

Another book I had was called something like “96 Reasons Your Novel Won’t Get Published, and Three Why It Might.” It was written in a similar way to “Up The Organization.” It was a series of memos on various topics (ie reasons). Here are a few:

You don’t know how to spell,

You don’t know grammar,

You don’t listen to advise,

I will immediately stop reading a piece that has a subject like “me and Joe”. Okay, maybe it’s trite but if you don’t know that a subject can’t have an objective pronoun … well, it’s just grating on my ears. Sorry. Kind of like sitting opposite someone at a meal who thinks it’s okay to show you the contents of their meal while they eat it. 

Over use of relative pronouns. Yes, I know it’s easier to write with pronouns, but if you want to be understood then cut back. Yes, it’s more boring to write that way, but remember you know where you are going with your story, your audience does not. Here’s an example:

The train was on the plain as the sun set. It was red and orange.

Okay, no problem, right?

What if I wrote:

The train was on the plain as the sun set. It was steely gray.

What? What was steely gray? The sun? The train? 

Rules of grammar say it should be the last noun encountered. That would be the sun.

Is the sun steely gray? Seems odd. Red and orange okay. Got to be the sun.

If there is any question – Don’t use the pronoun!

The train was on the plain as the sun set. The train was red and orange.

The train was on the plain as the sun set. The sun was steely gray.

In both cases above I’ve written something that is unusual. This should make a reader’s ears perk up. They might now be alert to something is going to happen that is unexpected.

If you want to write for speed, by that I mean something that can be read fast. Eliminate pronouns and complex sentences. Subject – Verb – Object is the way to go. Nothing else.

The train was on the plain. The sun was setting. The sun was red and orange. The train was steely gray.

By all means eliminate “nots” and negatives when writing for speed, or any other time if possible.

If you miss that one word you lose the meaning.

Thou Shall Commit Adultery.

Hum. Really? (Well, there was one bible written in the 1600s that forgot the “not”. A very popular edition.)

For clarity it would be better to write:

Do Not commit

because the “not” is not buried in the middle of the sentence where it would be lost.

Take time to reread your work. Even though I do, I still miss spellings. specially ones the spell checker has inserted for me! Although, I like spell checkers they are to some degree evil and you must be wary. if it’s important print it out and read it out loud. Get someone else to read it.

Okay. More than enough.

And remember, one last thing. This is very important . .

                                                                                        . .  . .

                                                                                           .   .  .  .

                                                                                                      . 

*STORY – Robert McKee (What did you think it would be called?)