Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Writing Tip #7: Keep Your Words Simple
Simplicity isn't just for Zen Buddhist Monk or for nature. Simple language actually makes you more believable. Back when I was a TV reporter, we were taught to write to a sixth grade mind--not because viewers lack intelligence but because people who feel "left out" of a conversation will turn the channel. Nothing alienates faster than a lot of high falutin' fancy talk!
This article, from the web, is one of my class handouts because I love the information and totally agree. I've highlighted some of the text to help you get the point. Read on!
Speak and write using unambiguous language and people will believe you.
I've just deleted a rather abstract introduction I wrote to this article about truth. The reason? I noticed I wasn't taking the excellent advice offered in a recent article published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. That advice is simple: if you want people to believe you, speak and write concrete.
There are all sorts of ways language can communicate truth. Here are some solid facts for you:
1) People usually judge that more details mean someone is telling us the truth,
2) We find stories that are more vivid to be more true,
3) More raw facts make unlikely events more likely.
But all these involve adding extra details or color. What if we don't have any more details? What if we want to bump up the believability without adding to the fact-count?
Just going more concrete can be enough according to a recent study by Hansen and Wanke (2010).
Compare these two sentences:
Hamburg is the European record holder concerning the number of bridges.
In Hamburg, one can count the highest number of bridges in Europe.
Although these two sentences seem to have exactly the same meaning, people rate the second as more true than the first. It's not because there's more detail in the second—there isn't. It's because it doesn't beat around the bush, it conjures a simple, unambiguous and compelling image: you counting bridges.
Abstract words are handy for talking conceptually but they leave a lot of wiggle-room. Concrete words refer to something in the real world and they refer to it precisely. Vanilla ice-cream is specific while dessert could refer to anything sweet eaten after a main meal.
Verbs as well as nouns can be more or less abstract. Verbs like 'count' and 'write' are solid, concrete and unambiguous, while verbs like 'help' and 'insult' are open to some interpretation. Right at the far abstract end of the spectrum are verbs like 'love' and 'hate'; they leave a lot of room for interpretation.
Even a verb's tense can affect its perceived concreteness. The passive tense is usually thought more abstract, because it doesn't refer to the actor by name. Perhaps that's partly why fledgling writers are often told to write in the active tense: to the reader it will seem more true.
Hansen and Wanke give three reasons why concreteness suggests truth:
Our minds process concrete statements more quickly, and we automatically associate quick and easy with true (check out these studies on the power of simplicity). We can create mental pictures of concrete statements more easily. When something is easier to picture, it's easier to recall, so seems more true. Also, when something is more easily pictured it seems more plausible, so it's more readily believed.
So, speak and write solidly and unambiguously and people will think it's more true. I can't say it any clearer than that.
From: PSYBlog
Labels: memoir, memoir writing, writing, writing advice, writing prompts
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Fall Classes
Memoir is the hottest genre in publishing today. Why? People love to read life stories--especially life stories that are thoughtful and well rendered.
The Master Class Series inspires you to create writing that is both. In Portland, we meet Monday nights, beginning Sept. 19 & ending on Nov. 14, from 5:30 - 9:00.
The Master Class is devoted to the development of skill in the area of scene, point of view, arc, plot, dialogue, setting and detail infusion. You will also learn about the skillful navigation of reflective writing and how to explore memory without being confined or limited. While this is a class geared toward the memoir writer, fiction writers are welcome too.
How Does Class Work?
The first 90 minutes of each class will be dedicated to straight forward teaching on craft and I will make use of prompts so that you will be writing--in class--and at home.
Six readers have their writing (20-25 pages in length) work-shopped twice during the course of the term. This portion of the Master Class--which will be the second 90 minutes--is a teaching for the entire class. We learn from each other in this class. Experience is the best teacher. When you see a skilled writer have work examined, with close attention paid to structure, composition and scene, you will learn more than you can imagine.
Cost: $350.00 for the non-reader (space available, advance conversation required)
$500.00 for the work-shopped student (standby spots are being taken).
Email me at Jclauck@gmail.com
Saturday, September 03, 2011
A Zero-Circle by Rumi
Be helpless and dumbfounded,
unable to say yes or no.
Then a stretcher will come
from grace to gather us up.
We are too dulleyed to see the beauty.
If we say "Yes we can," we'll be lying.
If we say "No, we don't see it,"
that "No" will behead us
and shut tight our window into spirit.
So let us not be sure of anything,
besides ourselves, and only that, so
miraculous beings come running to help.
Crazed, lying in a zero-circle, mute,
we will be saying finally,
with tremendous eloquence, "Lead us."
When we¹ve totally surrendered to that beauty,
we'll become a mighty kindness.
- Jellaludin Rumi
( Mathnawi IV, 3748-3754
translated by Coleman Barks)