Letting Go

Sometimes we pay too much attention to rules. In an effort to be the best writers we can be, we stuff our heads with so many dos and don'ts that, when we actually sit down to write, we are frozen. Creativity is a finicky companion. It likes to come out and play and it likes to be given free rein. In return, it can bless us with riches we never dreamed of. But if it feels too stifled, too corralled in by too many rules, it can retreat and disappear altogether. If this happens to you, you'll need to tease it out of hiding again. This means letting go for awhile of all the forms and structures and conventions and just freewriting as if there is no purpose, as if there is no reader or editor, as if there is no other reason than to just write. If you allow this much room, your creativity will emerge again, cautiously. To keep it from retreating, you'll need to continue feeding it with freeplay, letting it bend at its own will, until it grows and strengthens and becomes resilient enough to withstand the onslaught of convention. You'll need to make regular play dates with your creativity to keep it strong. Insert into your work schedule ample time to play-write. This can be in the form of a journal, a writing sketchbook, an idea log, or something else you come up with. Whatever it is, do it regularly; and after your creative mind has had time to follow its whimsies, then put it back to the hard work of conforming to rules and structure and convention. All work and no play, as they say, makes for a dull person. The same holds true for writing. Letting go of the rules periodically will strengthen your creative powers and boost your productivity - a handsome payoff for a little bit of fun!

Writing In Tone

Tone is so important in everything you write. You can think of tone as the words between the words. Tone is conveyed by what you're not saying, and what you're not saying can sometimes scream at readers, drowning out what you are saying. Writers tend to focus too much on content, to the detriment of tone. It is important to be accurate and thorough and honest in your writing, but it's also important to give readers literary medicine that they can swallow easily. You get nowhere with readers if you offend or insult them or talk down to them. So paying attention to the tone in your writing is critical to connecting with readers. The best way to do this is to really "listen" to what you've written. Look for the connotations and turns of phrase that may send the wrong message to readers. When you read your writing back, do you have any negative gut reaction to what you're saying? When you read it aloud, does it convey the mood or attitude you intended it to? Does your writing "sound" the way you hear it in your head? Getting tone right doesn't mean you edit out truth or shock or fury. It means that you make sure your words don't betray your message and that the timbre of your language is harmonious with your intent. Writing must resonate aurally to be effective, and having your message and your tone in sync will make it fall like music on readers' ears.

Writing Muscle

Writing is like a muscle. A muscle must be exercised regularly to maintain its tone and stability and to do its job of supporting bones and body parts. If a muscle is not exercised regularly (daily), it can atrophy. So can writing. To gain strength and flexibility as a writer, you must write regularly. There isn't an easy way out. You have to exercise your creativity in order to expand it, and that doesn't mean doing the same thing repeatedly. Just as muscles need a variety of exercises to stay strong, so does writing. Challenge yourself to do things differently as often as you can. Write a genre you haven't written before. Put seemingly opposing or odd ideas together and work them into a descriptive passage or storyline. Ask your creative muscle to stretch in ways it normally doesn't. By writing regularly, even when you don't feel like it, you will gain the same benefits over time that you gain by exercising regularly. Musculature needs attention AND tension to grow and strengthen. Your creativity also needs your regular attention and it needs tension from the challenges you throw at it in order to develop. Exercise your writing every day, challenge yourself every day to write just a little better or a little differently, and keep the pressure on. You'll be astounded at the results.

Theme and Thesis

Both theme and thesis are important to good writing. To write well, you have to go beyond your theme (subject matter) and delve into your thesis (your belief about or interpretation of your subject matter). Both are critical to reading and writing literature. It's not enough to be well versed in your subject. Just being knowledgeable doesn't translate into good writing. You also have to get beneath the skin of your subject and explore how you feel about it. This underlying belief is the message you need to communicate to readers. When reading a work of literature, you can only truly understand it when you get to the writer's emotional landscape, the way the writer views the world and the subject's place in that world. Likewise, when writing a work of literature, you have only truly written it when you've peeled your subject down to its innermost layers and revealed those raw emotions to readers. It is only then that you have truly communicated to readers. Writing is as much about discovering as it is about knowing. Flannery O'Connor expressed this best when she said, "I write to discover what I know." Know your subject well and you will write well; but know yourself well, and you will write sensationally.

Aspire to Inspire

When engaging my students in writing exercises, they are encouraged to consider the ageless adage that "it's not what you say but how you say it" that matters. Shouldn't all writers look at their writing this way? After all, what good does thorough, accurate, technically perfect writing do if it bores readers to death? It's not the content that inspires readers, but rather the way writers deliver that content that makes all the difference. How you express yourself on the page is what makes you the unique writer you are. Sure, content is important and research and accuracy are crucial to good writing. But when it all comes together, it's the way you phrase things, the rhythm of your language, and the structure of your sentences that gives you the power to inspire readers. Informing is one thing, but inspiring is quite another. All writers aspire to inspire, and it's through paying attention to stylistic nuances of cadence and syntax and flow that they are able to achieve it. It's through paying attention to how they say things. A good writer can write about anything, but an excellent writer can write about anything and make it sensational, no matter how mundane it is. By concentrating on how you say what you say, and making that your primary focus, you can be the kind of writer that matters to readers.

Thinking and Writing

Writers must think clearly in order to write clearly. This doesn't mean that writers can't write in response to the chaos and confusion of life. But it does mean that they need to have some perspective to write effectively. Thinking clearly doesn't mean having it all figured out. In fact, some of the best writing has come from writers' journeys of discovery. But clear thinking involves reflection. It's thinking that has a purpose. When thinking clearly, there is an active effort to focus the disconnected flow of ideas and images into useful discovery. There is an effort to develop new interpretations of events, to consciously evaluate the accuracy of information and ideas. Clear thinking also involves creativity because it uses association techniques to generate ideas or images. When writers engage in clear thinking, they are actively seeking form and function in the soup of life's chaos. They are making order and meaning where none existed before. This is the special talent of writers - taking the confusing, the frustrating, even the mundane and transforming it into something inspirational and enlightening for readers. All the writing skill in the world won't make up for muddled thinking. Good thinking habits are a writer's most valuable tool and most valuable gift to readers.