Alright I'm going to share a silly story today, but it has to do with writing, I promise. I base my philosophy on writing simply and always being mindful that I must communicate effectively to my reader, whether its physical description, action, or dialogue. Simplicity is key. You do not have to sacrifice your "artistry" to remain simple. It just depends on your relationship to your writing, and therefore your reader. I used to watch a sitcom called "Step by Step" which was a modern rendition of the Brady Bunch (with the genders of the two youngest children switched) starring Suzanne Summers. The episode I watched was later in the show, like the fourth season, where the eldest female child, Dana, was about to go to college. Of course, she really didn't think too much on how she was going to pay for college, and assumed her parents would foot the bill for Stanford or Yale, college worthy of her intellect. Her father informed her that he had seven children and a house, and that if she had a scholarship for a full ride, then she could make it, if not, community college it is! Dana didn't like the idea of going to college with all the rabble, thinking that somehow it was beneath her to stand shoulder to shoulder with non-Harvard peasants.
With nothing else to do, Dana went to the local community college and sat it on her first English class. She was given a writing assignment, and went home thinking that she would show the professor that she was heads and shoulders above the rest. She used as many large words as she could fit and wrote in a dense, convoluted manner. The next day in class, she got a big "D" across the face of her paper. Incredulous, she marched straight up to the professor, demanding to know why she failed. The professor explained to Dana that she spent more effort in seeming erudite than having a solid message and properly communicating it. "The purpose of language is to communicate, and you've failed at that." Dana was of course dejected and went home to her family where they had a lovely mom-daughter scene. All mushiness aside, that scene stuck with me for years. It shaped the way I write.
The purpose of language is to communicate. Sounds pithy at first, but it helps us cultivate our attitude towards our writing. This could be for any genre: fantasy, science fiction, a term paper, business writing, anything really. When you're writing your next masterpiece, do you have your audience in mind, or are you off in the clouds, imagining you are in the drawing room having a drink with Dostoevsky, Camus, and Tolstoy? I can hear some of you grumbling, thinking about the "Twilight" phenomenon and how you could write so much better and bemoan all of the people who have such "low" tastes. My knee jerk reaction is to agree, but the author of Twilight was successful in keeping his/her audience in the forefront and communicating to them on their wavelength.
This idea also helps to keep your writing tight and your message on point. A lot of times new authors will try to cram as many large words, metaphors, and imagery into a single sentence. You end up with verbose behemoths striding through your novel, making it a laborious task to read instead of an experience to enjoy. Getting your exact point across with few words is the goal, and knowing your audience and focusing on communication helps you achieve that goal. Treasure your readers. You can tease them, challenge them, shock them, entrance them, but you should always talk to them like a dear friend. Every word counts, ever image matters, and your final presentation will be that much more enjoyable with this in mind.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, August 31, 2011
at 10:28 AM
. You can follow any responses to this entry through the
comments feed
.
