Meet the Bad Boys of Writing
Everyone knows them and hangs out with them. They are the bad boys of writing. Handsome and seductive fellows, they have weaseled their way into our thinking. They’re conmen really — conmen in the true sense of the word — they play a confidence came.
The bad boys take advantage of us because we wrote so much in school. They mess with our heads because we learned to write on cue. We confused the act of writing with the art and craft of writing. We don’t do that with wearing shoes, or living in a house or driving, but we do that with books and writing. So the bad boys of writing have a field day.
It’s time we showed the bad boys that we can beat them at their game.
Meet Bad Boy 1: Just write and it will be spectacular!
“Just Write” Is Not Spectacular
“just write” is regular. We “just write” shopping lists, emails, notes, and messages, things we want to remember, directions for a friend to get somewhere, maybe even a quick how-to for someone who needs it right away. That’s the writing version of driving to the local store, to a friend’s house, or to our hometown. We already know the way and if we miss by taking a shortcut, it doesn’t really matter much.
The bad boys of writing try to make us think that all writing should be like that.
Spectacular Takes Planning
Ah, but when we want to write something spectacular. A poem for a loved one, a blog post, an ezine article, a newletter or a business report. That’s when the bad boys show up. “Just write and it will be spectacular,” they say.
If we listen to them, we forget that spectacular doesn’t happen by magic.
Spectacular things take planning and patience. Imagine no plan for the Golden Gate bridge, or the Aswan High Dam, or the Taj Mahal. A cycler thinks about his route while he’s still preparing his bike. A hiker determines her path long before the day she’ll hike. A painter visualizes how he will use the canvas before he ever mises his paint. A writer plans what he wants to say before he sets his fingers on the keyboard. Spectacular work just works that way.
That’s why when we’re writing something new that we want to be spectacular, we can’t expect to sit just down to a blank screen and type in a document and think that it will turn out that way. Minds and ideas need time to prewrite, plan, and organize them before they formulate.
Prewriting — Ew!
It doesn’t have to take forever. Just a few minutes to clear your mind and order your ideas will do. Don’t pick prewriting tasks that you don’t like and you won’t have to say “Prewriting — Ew!” Writers choose techniques that work for them: freewriting, mindmaps, brainstorming, word webs, concept charts, bulleted lists, outlines. ideas on cocktail napkins, or a walk around a parking lot with a list of words held in their head.
Any form of prewriting planning gets that bad boy back on his bike and riding into the sunset, because he knows you’re not listening to him by the sound of your fingers clicking away on the keys as you start writing something just to show him that with a little planning you can do spectacular even more than he imagined . . . and that you have no need for him.
Who are the bad boys of writing that you know? Let’s see if we can run them out of town too.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Hey Liz,
It just seems sometimes, even after a lot of “prewriting” a post just comes out so-so.
Things I think should be -oh, so good-, get no response, but things I think are -eh, ok-, sometimes get the Best Response.
I guess you never know until the reader reads what you wrote, huh?
Joe
Hi Joe,
The prewriting only helps to organize what you’re going to say, then you have the infamous first draft that Hemingway said is sh*t. So next comes editing to get rid of all of the words that you don’t need.
I’m thinking of having a editing post each week where I take live copy and edit it. But I’d have to get folks to send me some anonymously. Do you think that folks would do that?
I think some might, but most people don’t like being corrected.
It takes a big person to take critisim, even from a friend. Maybe, especially from a friend. 😉
I was thinking that the paragraphs would be anonymous. Sort of here is paragraph one and here is it’s makeover.
That’s all.
No makes or conversation involved.
As they say, “Ya never know until ya try”.
People trust you and your writing ability, so I think it could go over as a Feature you offer to those who want to learn.
Thanks Joe,
For your opinion.
How’s the work load today?
Ok, speaking of which, I must attend to a few more things before I can really play.
I just stopped by for the re-cap of the Open Mic Night you usually post on Wednesdays. They’re almost as much fun as being there. 😉
I’m working on it. I had some work to do myself today, 🙂
See ya in a bit…
Sounds like the first class for the university from last night. I think it could be a good idea, Revision 101. You’re right, Joe, criticism is even harder to take from a friend, but we aren’t the words we write. A lot of times I’ll run an article by my wife – she’s a better writer than I am – sometimes several times. The only time it hurts is when you end up losing one of your favorite lines.
How would you get the work anonymously, though?
Well, I just meant I would post it anonymously, but I guess folks could email paragraphs anonmously for edits, That doesn’t seem to have a downside does it?
Not that I can see.
I’d only need one or two a week to make it work. So maybe I’ll announce it tomorrow and see where it goes.
Sounds like a plan.
Great comment for this post! 🙂
Hey Liz,
hmmm sounds terribly familiar. Guilty as charged LOL.
I am too, Greg. Why do you think I wrote it?
I had to convince myself. I’m the one who walks through the parking lot and thinks first 🙂