Elements of Good Writing
Posted on Tuesday, June 29, 2021 at 6:38 PM
One trick is to know what to include, what to discard.
By
Peter P. Jacobi
Leave it to Voltaire. He said: "Woe to the
author determined to teach! The best way to be boring is to leave
nothing out."
An editor must, of course, test a writer's
sense of completeness in an article. Are the who, what, where, when,
why, and how questions answered? Gaps disconcert.
But the editor
knows that virtually no subject can be totally covered in a single
article. Space limitations preclude it. So informational completeness is
less of a goal than atmospheric completeness, this being the result of
an editor able to select those elements of a subject that must be
included, lest the reader senses something or other is missing. It's a
matter of the essentials versus tangentials, of the necessary versus the
dispensable.
The good writer, who is also a good information
gatherer, knows that much more information should be gathered and can be
used. That good writer may, however, fall in love with his or her
information and force all too much of it into the written product. He
forgets, in the process of stroking the fax, that the iceberg theory
still exists and works: an article of carefully chosen morsels suggests
a far larger, hidden base. He forgets that the reader hasn't the need or
patience for everything collected. The piddling puts her off. The
parochial doesn't concern her.
Barbara Tuchman was a thorough
researcher and forceful writer. She once warned: "I want the reader to
turn the page and keep on turning to the end. This is accomplished only
when the narrative moves steadily ahead, not when it comes to a weary
standstill, overloaded with every item uncovered in the research."
As
editor, don't make your story cuts for space reasons alone or at all.
Determine, instead, what must be present on the pages of your magazine
to engage the reader and to give her the impression, the feel of
completeness. The mark of a good editor is always to know what to
include and what to discard. The mark of a professional writer is a
willingness to let the editor make such decisions. Good editor and
willing writer make an ideal relationship, one to strive for.
The
editor's task, and working with authors, also includes the realization,
in each published piece, of the four elements of writing. Remember them?
1.
Unity
2. Coherence
3. Emphasis
4. Style
A Logical Flow
The
element of unity concerns beginning, middle, and end: a beginning that
sets things into action; a middle that reads from the beginning and
expands it explains it; and, pending that, moves the action and/or the
information to a natural conclusion that gives full meaning to the
initial situation or question. Unity involves completeness. Unity
involves flow. Unity supplies the reader with the comfort of getting all
the necessary information and getting that information and linkage,
without chop or jump-cuts.
Structural Bonding
Coherence
refers to the system and structure, to giving an order to the incidents
or events or ideas that make up the whole action or topic. It refers to
the maintenance of a suitable point of view as well as a single
predominant tone or attitude, as well as integration of sending, as well
as a proper atmosphere.
Pace, Space, and High Points
Emphasis
comes from pace, proportion, and climax. Pace means the speed or lack of
speed at which the writer moves the action or information along, and
that should be appropriate for the kind of material covered: fast where
the movie stunt artists do their thing; slower where they sit down to
ponder why they do what they do; short, breathless sentences and strong,
active verbs when they perform; longer, softer sentences and language
when they reflect.
Proportion depends on space decisions, the
amount of space given to various parts of the article, the more
important sections capturing fuller treatment.
Climax is a
synonym for high point. Build to it, you should tell your writer. Build
to them, you should tell your writer because stories of any length
probably require several climaxes: one up front to get the reader in; a
couple more along the way to rekindle interest; one at or toward the end
to give the reader a final memory.
The Writer's Voice
And
then there's style, that fourth element of writing, that elusive
presence an editor always looks for in a piece of writing in hopes for
and begs for and works for. Style means clarity and vigor and
individuality. It means personality, the writer in residence, his or her
voice distinctly evident to the reader.
"I guess," wrote E. B.
White, "I have watched my coon descend the tree 100 times; even so, I
never miss a performance if I can help it. It has a ritualistic quality,
and I know every motion, as a ballet enthusiast knows every motion of
his favorite dance. The secret of its enchantment is in the way it
employs the failing light, so that when the descent begins, the
performer is clearly visible and is part of the day, and when, 10 or 15
minutes later, the descent is complete and the coon removes the last paw
from the tree and takes the first step away, groundborne, she is almost
indecipherable and is a part of the shadows and the night. The going
down of the sun and the going down of the coon are interrelated
phenomena; a man is lucky indeed who lives where sunset and coonset are
visible from the same window."
That has style. It is not
style one can copy because it comes from the life and times and mind of
E. B. White. But is this style one can emulate, and emulation comes from
reading. Encourage your writers to read, dear editor. Fiction.
Nonfiction. Write for the glory of his words. Some classic examples:
John McPhee for how he handles exposition, how he can flood dry subjects
with romance and excitement. Ellen Goodman for her droll sense of humor.
Charles Kuralt for the simplicity and dignity and folksy charm he gets
to people and places, always with just the right words. William Least
Heat-Moon for the detailed power of his description. Russell Baker for
how deliciously he can twist information to make a point and for the
poignancy he can command. (Have your writers read Growing Up.)
"In
the rain forest, no niche lies unused. No emptiness goes unfilled, no
gas of sunlight untapped." So wrote Diane Ackerman, another author, one
of prose and poetry, your writers should read. "In a million vast
pockets," she continues, "a million life-forms quietly tick. No place on
earth feels so lush. Sometimes we picture it as an echo of the original
Garden -- a realm ancient, serene, and fertile, where boas slither and
jaguars lope. But it is mainly a world of cunning and savage trees.
There is nothing mild-mannered or wimpy about rain-forest plants.
Truants will not survive; the meek inherit nothing. Light is a thick
yellow vitamin they would kill for, and they do."
That has
style. The writing is clear and vital and visual. Ackerman's
personality, her voice is well defined. As counselor, she once reminded
herself and other poets that their job is to teach "a way of seeing,
lest one spend a lifetime on this planet without noticing how green
light flares up as the setting sun rolls under.... The poet refuses to
let things merge, lie low, succumb to visual habit. Instead she hoists
things out of their routine, and lays them out on a white papery beach
to be fumbled and explored."
That's what the search for
style is all about.
And a good writer seeks and finds it, no
matter what the subject. Warren Brown was an automotive writer for the Washington
Post. Most of the time he took cars out on the road to test them,
then followed the driving with his evaluation on paper. "There was no
love between us, no kindness. We simply tolerated each other during our
time together. There was tension, occasionally relieved by surreptitious
speeding along Virginia's back roads. But those were cheap thrills,
which didn't merit post-title conversation."
And so on.
Brown gave his presence to every column of his, his own presence and the
presence of subject matter. You should expect no less.
A
classic article from a past issue in tribute to the late Peter J.
Jacobi, longtime EO writer and author of The Magazine
Article: How to Think It, Plan It, Write It.
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