Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

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August 4, 2006

The 5 Traits of an Infallible Writing Program

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 9:28 am

Why There Is No Decent Writing Program

I received an email asking:

Is there such a programme (not software) for writing? A simple one?
If not, can it be done?

My answer:

There is not one that I know of. The problem is that language is so complicated that the finest copyeditor I know can sit for hours over a sentence unraveling its meaning and its correctness.

A writing program requires a human. Otherwise you end up with a stilted bad translation, like a piano player who knows all technique and no art — or a designer with the same problem. You only get so much without discussing an original whole developed by the learner to test the message the learner is trying to send to make sure its the same one the reader is getting. It’s the ambiguity of words and the twists and turns of spelling that make learning to write too complicated to teach from a book or a computer program.

The 5 Traits of an Infallible Writing Program

Each writer’s process is individual. We find our own way to it. If your quest is to become an effective writer, you’re really taking on an apprenticeship. These are the 5 traits you need to build an infallible writing program.

    1. To make the words sing with power and move people to action, you need a writing-rich environment, where folks write and talk about writing, a place where you have mental space and time to practice.

    2. To offer direction based on your writing, you need a human, a coach, a teacher, a fluent writer, who understands the dynamic tension between structure and expression, who can listen like a reader and translate you message, and who loves the music of the language. Writers need constant feedback no question.

    3. You need writer friends to coach you with tips and techniques that they use, the way an old jazz guitarist shares what he’s learned with a new one. Writers need input to keep growing.

    4. Plenty of technical resources and reference books to check for how to do things according to conventions, such as capitalization and punctuation, grammar, usage, and mechanics. And you need someone to show you how to use them as manuals not roadmaps.

    5. You need time for reflection. Time to think the deep thoughts. Without them, serious writing just doesn’t happen. The world gets in the way. It only takes a few minutes to let a writer find the quiet to write in.

Learning to write starts the day we learn our first word and continues until we write our last one. It works in this way:

First we listen. Then we speak. Then we read. Then we write. The more we listen, speak, read, and write with folks who can already do it, the more fluent we become in the language, and the more we understand how to use it. With fluent speakers and writers guiding us, we learn to do it faster, broader and more deeply.

In the end, we learn to write as we learn to talk, by doing it.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

If you think Liz can help you with your writing check out the Work with Liz!! page in the side bar.


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8 Comments to “The 5 Traits of an Infallible Writing Program”

  1. August 4th, 2006 at 11:05 am
    Martin said

    Hey Liz, I like your thinking on this.

    I view writing as a very individual pursuit, even selfish in many ways.

    Every writer has to develop their own writing “voice”. No software or manual will teach you - guide you, yes maybe. But it’s all up to you.

    For me, my ideal writing is lyrical in nature, something that flows off the page, smooth, jazzy. You get the drift, right? ;-)

    When I get there, I’ll let you know - and that’s it isn’t it - a writer is always honing his craft.

    I love unique writers. It’s the same with singers. Some of my favorite singers are technical pretty bad - but they’re different, they have a voice.

  2. August 4th, 2006 at 11:34 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hey Martin,
    Thank you, I thought it was time someone said this out loud. It’s the way that writing happens. No one is ever finished learning. At least I don’t think so.

  3. August 4th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
    Mike said

    Personally, I learned all I needed to learn in Kindergarden -

    1) If you like what you see, take it !
    1) It mine ! All mine !
    2) Repeat #1 & #2 everyday til you believe it !

  4. August 4th, 2006 at 11:02 pm
    cat said

    Liz,
    I looked around briefly but only found a kids game.

    For those who are interested, here’s ‘eats, shoot and leaves’ –>> http://www.savethecomma.com/game/

    When my son was homeschooling we had a library of CDs with various learning games. They were all badly designed so he was not interested. That’s right, without decent graphics, the incentive was not there. If certain software is designed well he’ll spend hours, ugly and he’ll pass.

    It’s not a game, but I purchased WritePro by Sol Stein five years back or more http://www.writepro.com/

    As is says in the review, it’s very easy to operate. I only dabbled in it when it first arrived as I was extremely busy. And as I’m only now finding the time to get back into learning the basics of writing, I cannot comment on it yet.

    This is what they say about Sol’s WritePro “Created by Sol Stein, the prize-winning author and award-winning teacher, the program will guide you step by step in improving your writing. You’ll learn the foundations of fiction writing: how to create believable characters–heroes, heroines, and villains; and how to produce dramatic conflict and this is only the first lesson. WritePro solves your writing problems as you write so not even a single second is wasted and its results immediately exported to your word processor of choice. Everything your write is automatically saved. It has been used successfully by tens of thousands of writers in 38 different countries. Highlights: Invent suspenseful plots, learn how to hook your reader from the opening scene, use of Dialogue Doctor, already working for 60,000 writers, at your disposal, discover techniques that you would have never dreamed existed, and so much more it will have your head spinning with ideas and new knowledge.”

    Time to start spinning away …

    I have ‘Stein on Writing’ and it’s excellent. Stein’s ‘How to grow a novel’ is on my amazon.com wish list. Or rather, I thought it was. I’ve just checked it after all these years of it being stagnant, and it’s not there (it is now though).

    Does anyone else keep a wish list on amazon? As it’s easy to set up, I keep a writers wish list on .com and a designers wish list on .co.uk

    Back to software … there’s a range of plotting software here –>> http://www.scriptdude.com/plot.html

    Stein’s FirstAid for Writers looks interesting, but I won’t allow myself to make another purchase along this vein until I’ve made my way through WritePro.

    Yes, I’m sure everyone can just open up MSword and away they go. To write, just write! But some of us like to have a bit of a play as we go. (Besides, I hate anything MS …)

    cat

  5. August 5th, 2006 at 6:00 am
    ME Strauss said

    Hey Mike,
    I can just see you in Kindergarten. I bet you had a hard time explaining how you carried the teacher home from school. :)

  6. August 5th, 2006 at 6:07 am
    ME Strauss said

    Oh Cat,
    I wasn’t saying that we all don’t need help learning to write. I hope you don’t think that’s what this was about. I was just saying that books and things only go so far and that we need each other to get the rest of the way.

    I suppose there was a bit of sadness in there that not enough teachers know enough about both sides of writing — structure and expression to turn out writers who can do both, but I bet you find the same on the art and design side as well. :)

  7. August 5th, 2006 at 6:24 am
    cat said

    Liz,

    Nope, that’s not what I thought.

    But there ARE some of use who need more help then others [raising hand]

    And I guess when I started documenting list of books and things, at the back of my mind was, “well girl, stop buying books n stuff, and blinking get on with it!”

    But you see, me and amazon have a thing going :-)

    (ok, ok, ‘amazon and myself’ …)

    Writing teachers … I’m not up on that one as I’ve not ventured out that far. Not brave enough yet. Soon …

    Design teachers (design education) … yes, the grumblings have been around in my industry for years. Designers graduating with not enough knowledge and US$40+++ student loans to pay off. Coming into a saturated industry to boot. It’s a real shame and one of the reasons we started up Creative Latitude, to help where we can.

  8. August 5th, 2006 at 6:32 am
    ME Strauss said

    Okay Cat,
    Thanks for that comment and thanks for that “amazon and myself” point too! That will be today’s “power hit” for sure!

    I’ll write it up as soon as I answer your email. :)

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