A primer to prose writing
It’s all right if writing causes you some degree of grief. Languages are notorious for troubling two categories of people: the natives and the non-natives. Writing is a difficult art anyway. Luckily for you, help is at hand.
I fully realise that anybody writing on how to write must have a valid excuse for doing so, what with the vast literature already available on the subject, on- and off-line. Mine is that there still are millions of bad writers around, and I guess another 879 words are hardly going to hurt anybody.
In the following I present a quickly put together list of items that I have found to be of help when writing. As it comes mainly off the top of my head, the reader is requested not to expect any sort of sequence to it, let alone completeness.
- Thanks to your teachers or do-it-yourself manuals, you may accept it as a given that one must read a lot on a subject before attempting to write on it. The faster you unlearn this, the better. Remember that your readers want to know your thoughts on the subject, not those of other writers. You must be original; and there’s nothing that maximises originality more than a minimisation of reading and vice versa. Readers are called readers, and writers, writers for a very good reason.
- Give your draft a rest, for it’s amazing how different one feels about one’s writing after some time has passed. Experienced writers usually prescribe a rest of two to three days. I am inclined to suggest a month or two. That way, you may forget it altogether, which is likely to be a boon to all concerned parties: You, for avoiding making a fool of yourself, and the general public (all ten of your readers) for being spared the agony of perusing it.
- Before sending your work to the publisher, make an honest critic read your draft. That rules out close relations and those you are romantically involved with – for they are likely to give a rosy assessment in order to spare your pride. Wives, however, can be fully relied upon for their candour and the capacity to call a spade a spade.
- Never use a simple word when a fancy one will do. Word such as ‘lollygagging’, ‘hullabaloo’, and ‘chutzpah’ for example. Take ‘chutzpah’, for instance: ‘Audacity’, ‘cheek’, ‘gall’, ‘nerve’, ‘brashness’ and the like obviously are no match for ‘chutzpah’. They all have the merit of being everyday words understood by all, but it is something like ‘chutzpah’ that makes the reader to reach for his dictionary. The reader’s effort in constantly having to look words up complements your effort in writing, making it a hands-on experience for him. A good writer knows a lot of words that his readers don’t.
- Avoid sexism at all costs. You’d do well to remember that whether anybody reads you or not, you write for all types of readers, and that includes men as well as women. You cannot have your reader think that he or she is being short-changed or his or her whole gender is being ignored. It’s quite all right if he or she puts your work down because of its extreme boredom, but let’s not give him or her any reason to think of you as a bigot.
- The usual advice of avoiding clichés like the plague is over-rated, especially if you are writing for the masses and not solely for the elites. Due to the force of propaganda, the anti-cliché side appears to be currently winning. However, which side will eventually carry the day, only time will tell.
- Another thing that a writer must unlearnt as quickly as possible is the undue stress on clarity and unambiguity. ‘Having been forced to choose between marriage and life-bachelorhood, he elected to avoid life-long solitude,’ is excellent writing because the author involves the reader by leaving something to his imagination and judgment. If the author is a married man himself, it’s also the only safe option for him.
- Despite all the propaganda against it, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the passive voice. Especially when you want to sound earnest without having anything substantial to say. For example, try saying something sombre like, ‘It will be made sure that the issues are resolved to everybody’s satisfaction, keeping the highest principles of justice and equality in mind,’ in the active voice.
- To avoid the agony of the blank-screen-syndrome, writers are often told not to edit the first draft until they complete it. This is sound advice. Indeed, it is best never to edit at all. The first draft comes straight from the heart, and everything after that loses the crucial spontaneity. It is fashionable to say that all writing is rewriting. According to elementary logic however, writing is writing and rewriting is rewriting.
- A final word about fear. Many writers feel constrained by preoccupation with how their current readers and the coming generations will judge their work. This fear of making mistakes triggers even more mistakes. While it’s a noble consideration, the reality is that nobody cares – not this generation, and definitely not the coming ones.
