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The 9 Rights of Every Writer — Peer Pressure Is for Jr. High School

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Can’t Stay in My Box — I Never Was Cool

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I suppose if I were the savvy one, I’d wait until Monday or Tuesday to write this post. But I’m not. I’m the one who writes when the writing needs to be done. This post can’t wait until Monday or Tuesday, and darn it. It shouldn’t either.

The dialogue around the blogs that I read a lot and among some bloggers that I care about has been around one big question lately that keeps getting twisted and turned.

Do I write about what I know and want, or do I change what I write when I see big traffic come?

It’s time we talk about the rights of a writer. [Read more…]

The 5 Traits of an Infallible Writing Program

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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.

9 + 1 — The Sequel — When Big Words Go Bad

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Big Words Are Wonderful

Thank you, to everyone who read and took time to comment on 9 + 1 Things Every Reader Wants from a Writer. The post and the discussion became much of what I personally think is the appeal and the addiction of blogging — learning by an interactive, rolling dialogue.

One point in particular seemed to get several comments. It was this one.

Set aside your expensive vocabulary. Don’t use big words, when perfectly good little words communicate easily. I don’t read with an online dictionary, and I don’t want to.

It seems folks were worried that I don’t like big words at all. I love them. I like the way they sound and the way that you can find one that will precisely pinpoint the idea that you’re going for. The point up above that I didn’t make clearly — yeah I’m unclear too, go figure — is that I was writing the 9 + 1 post in the voice of average readers, who don’t have time to go looking up words that might get between them and your message.

El Hakeem pointed out that some folks DO like big words and enjoy learning them. Starbucker is one in particular. He reads William Safire for that very reason. They’re right, you know. If your audience shares your love of vocabulary and finds new words delicious, I’d never ask you to take that away from them. I don’t expect that you would, even if I did.

I was talking about folks who use big words to make themselves or their writing sound smarter. Using vocabulary that way isn’t authentic and readers can tell.

Tony Lawrence left a story in a comment this morning that is a perfect example of how a guy can get caught doing just that.

Many years ago I had a partner who sometimes liked to brag about his education. I think he liked it all the more because I am mostly self educated – I dropped out of high school the moment I was legally able.

Anyway, Don (we’ll call him Don because that was his name) had prepared a new company brochure and was presenting it to me and another partner. As I was reading it, I came across an interesting sentence:

‘We provide simple pneumonic phrases to help you remember the commands.’

“Don, what the hell is a ‘pneumonic phrase’, I asked (not all that pleasantly).

Don nearly preened himself. “Well, if you had the benefit of a college education, you’d know that a pneumonic is a memory aid.”

I shook my head. “I am an autodidact, you fatuous ass, but I know how to spell and I know that the word you were thinking of is ‘mnemonic’ and that YOUR word is more usually found in conjunction with plagues”. I wrote ‘MNEMONIC’ out in large letters as I said that.

‘Benefits of a college education’ indeed.

Thanks, Tony, for letting me share your anecdote. (That qualifies as a big word.) You did what I couldn’t do and you did it artfully. I probably would have had readers screaming, “Liz, the darn horse is dead.”

By the way, my favorite word is despicable. It sounds like it should have punctuation inside it. What’s yours?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz’s help with your writing, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

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See the Customer Think and Writing Power for Everyone series on the SUCCESSFUL SERIES PAGE.

6+1 Ways to Compelling & Elegant Blog Posts

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Atilla, the Great Idea Killa

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Ideas. Everyone talks about getting ideas. I get one. It’s great. I jump on it. I start to write. Soon enough I find myself in a pile of mush — words all over, thoughts in too many places.

What made me think this was a great idea? Now I’ve wasted all of this time. Here I sit — still no blog post and now one mangled idea. it isn’t pretty. What the heck am I doing wrong here? I was sure this idea was great. I am Atilla, the Great Idea Killa.

Yeah, I do that too.

I Want Compelling & Elegant!

The truth is that most ideas misbehave. They’re just not strong the way they come to us. They have a problem staying on track. Sometimes they fall apart. Often, they’re too large or stray all over the place. Your average idea needs a little help to be what it will be when it grows up to be a “Hey, lookat me” blog post. [Read more…]