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On Writing Well
By Cameron Sorden | June 2, 2008
After submitting five years of papers and presentations at college, over a year of blogging (both informally and professionally), and getting a bunch of random writing experience picked up from various other projects, I like to think that I’ve had a good bit of experience with writing. Some of it has been fiction, but the vast majority of it has been nonfiction in the form of essays and articles. I write for a lot of reasons. As far as my blogging goes, I do it because I like sharing my ideas with people, I like exploring those ideas, and I like getting feedback from my readers. I also like honing my writing, which is a skill that has uses far beyond the world of blogging.
Writing usually comes easily for me, and it always has. However, I’ve gotten far more practice at it over the last year than ever before. If you look at one of my early posts versus one of my recent posts, you can see that the writing style is very similar. It hasn’t changed much at all since I’ve started. The difference is that I’m far more keenly aware of what my particular habits and little eccentricities are, nowadays. Those of you who have been reading me for a long time might have noticed them too. Here are a few of the things that characterize my writing:
- I make excessive use of the em dash, almost to the point of absurdity—you’ll notice them in every other paragraph when I’m not purposely restraining myself.
- I use buckets and buckets of commas, sometimes even when I shouldn’t. I think it’s because that’s how I talk and think, but I worry that it makes for repetitive reading at times. Maybe I need to master the elusive semicolon.
- I love starting off sentences with some sort of transitional phrase like “However,” “That said,” or “Furthermore.” I believe this is closely related to my love of commas, and worry about this foible getting repetitive too.
I get feedback on my writing periodically; some is solicited and some is not. The feedback that always hits home the hardest is when people ask me to tighten my prose, because many of my entries are very long-winded. That’s partially because I usually have a lot to say—it’s also partially because when I write, I use the writing itself to explore my topic. I often have a general opinion on an issue, but I couldn’t really give you a play by play outline of what a potential article might be about. I’ve always hated outlines. I write from the heart and the tip of my tongue. Unfortunately, this leads to a writing style described by one reader as “the long way around the barn.” Some articles are better than others about this. It’s something I’m torn about.
Since I work my thoughts out through writing, the long-winded style is my style; many people seem to like it. I invite my readers to come along with me as I work out exactly why I’m making the points I’m making. Still, shorter writing is almost always better when you have a point to make. I think that a lot of people tend to skim to the end (or skip it entirely) when they see an article that approaches the 1000-1200 word length, which is the average for my Massively column and any substantial Random Battle post. I’ve been accused of writing fluff before, but if I don’t have enough to say I’d honestly rather just post a shorter article. Everything I write gets put there because I want you to read it. I probably could very easily gut my articles, extract the main points, and present the ideas to my readers in a way that’s free of debris and excess, but I worry that they’d lose their character, voice, and soul along with the clutter. What would this article look like if I cut all the extraneous bits? How do I even separate what’s extraneous when I’m writing to entertain, inform, and provoke discussion?
If I don’t dive into an in-depth analysis of my topics, my audience will do it for me in my comments, and it looks like I’m only doing a quick examination of the issues. If I work on cleaning up my odd little quirks, does my writing lose its personal tone and unique flavor? I’m not a faceless, disembodied writer, after all. I bring my personality to my articles, on purpose—it’s part of blogging. But if I write 1300-word entries all the time, do I risk alienating my audience? I’m inclined to think that expecting people to read an entry of that length isn’t asking too much, but at the same time I’m well aware that TLDR is an overwhelmingly common response to a post or discussion of any length beyond a few paragraphs, let alone the behemoths I toss out sometimes.
One of the hard things about writing is that you can’t really be taught to do it well. You can be taught proper grammar and a given style, but nobody can provide a textbook formula for writing a winning novel or an engaging blog (especially at the level of output that many bloggers maintain). I think good writing is really just about understanding your audience, figuring out how to talk to them in a way that works for you, and then doing that. If it doesn’t work, then you need to go back to the drawing board and figure out why (or go find something else to do). Like anything, persistence and observation pay off. You have to read good writers, figure out why they’re good, take it as a lesson, and adapt it for your own use.
Writing well seems to be a lot like learning to ride a bike. You fall on your face a lot, you wobble quite a bit, and if you do it in public everybody gets to see and laugh at your mistakes (hint: blogging is often learning to write well in public). Eventually, you start to get the hang of it. Sooner or later, you’re zooming around having fun. Most importantly, it looks a lot easier than it is. But if it was easy, everyone would do it. The important thing is to keep at it until you get it.
Topics: Random |
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:19 am
Heh, I’m a comma slave as well. I’ve just forgotten so much about proper grammar over the years that I don’t know if I can ever go back. I type things out so fast that I think it would be very hard for me to fix my common mistakes.
Regardless, if the content is good and its at least readable, then it will get read. By readable, I mean that there is punctuation, transitions, and breaks.
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:37 am
[...] the stars are aligning for my second attempt at blogging. Just this morning I read a post titled “On Writing Well” over at Random Battle where Cameron neatly sums up why I’ve decided to write again today with [...]
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:37 am
You can write with breadth and depth or you can be brief. In my experience, they’re usually opposites. When they’re not, it’s calling an adage, not an article. Concision’s always good, though.
The greater part of creative writing is cutting away from your original idea. But in arguments and analysis, the minor points are often worth making.
Anyway, I have the same problem, so I’ve gotten into the habit of bolding pivotal phrases and sectioning my articles with headers. The bolded phrases, in particular, allow readers to quickly scan the article for points of interest without disrupting the natural flow of a nice rant.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I have a thing for dashes. It used to be semicolons when I was a preteen, now it’s dashes–I’ll use it anywhere, everywhere. Obsessed.
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:10 pm
I tend to be more long winded when I know I have a point to make but don’t take time to outline how I’m going to get there.
Apparently, my seventh grade English teacher knew what she was doing back then. Every time she assigned an essay or a report, she would require us to pick a Subject four weeks before it was due, create a Thesis Statement three weeks before it was due, come up with an Outline two weeks before it was due, and then finally compose a rough draft the week before. As an adult, I can now condense that prep process down into 5-10 minutes, and it pays off in spades when you actually begin to write.
I personally know so many adults who completely forgo the outline before they write. From bloggers, to short fiction writers to web comic authors, they all just think they can start spewing out words with only a vague sense of where they’re going with it. Don’t expect divine inspiration to strike you every time, poor planning usually only leads to either a flawed composition or a total scrap and rewrite.
If you create an outline with a few major ideas and bullet points, you can easily see what part of your argument needs more support, which parts are already overkilled and in what order to present each piece. Just go down the list, write 1 or 2 sentences for each thing you want to touch on and before you know it you’re done, concise and to the point.
Some people may find stream-of-consciousness writing to be charming and approachable, but I believe most of the audience will usually kindly ask you to “get to the point.”
June 14th, 2008 at 11:29 am
[...] have been like if I was writing this week too. Still, I got a few drafts done for articles (I took Captain Angry’s suggestion and started structuring my articles in advance last week; we’ll see how it [...]
June 17th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Strunk & White’s Elements of Style my friend. best little writing resource around.