Writing, Clear and Simple

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

—William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Over at Brandywine Books, author Lars Walker writes about using word choice to convey emotions in fiction, and it reminded me how important it was for all writing, not just fiction. He started by talking about what really good actors do to convey emotions with just their eyes:

Last night I pretended to know something about movies, and talked about the kind of subtle acting you used to see in good films—particularly the kind of acting that’s done with the eyes. The thing about eye acting (if I can call it that) is that it’s a sort of visual subtext. It’s not like in a script, where the directions say, “Rufus goes to the window and looks out.” The eye acting is something the actor himself adds, and it probably hasn’t been explicitly written out in the script.

So how can I claim that there’s an equivalent in fiction writing? If you can’t write it in a script, you can’t write it in a story either, right?

Well, not exactly.

How many times have we heard (and said), “It’s not what you said, it’s the way you said it.”

“But that’s about tone of voice and facial expression,” you say. “If you describe those things in a story, it’s not eye acting. It’s stage direction—‘Stop!’ John said commandingly. Or ‘Stop!’ John said with an angry frown. There’s nothing subtle about that.”

Ah, but there are other ways. Chief among these is word selection. Word selection is to writing what eye acting is to film.

Much of the time, I’m inclined to go with the first word that rolls onto the page or screen while I’m writing. And while I’m working on the first draft, that’s fine; the important thing at that point is to get the words out and onto the page.

But when we’re re-writing (and we should do that with almost everything we write), we should begin questioning the words you use. Lars gave a couple of examples of how this worked (so go over and read his post), but let me expand on that with some examples of my own.

For example, I could write that someone “walked into the room.” Or I could replace walked with other words like: stride, stomp, stump, stumble, wander, amble, bounce, prance, barge, crash, waltz, or sashay. Each word conveys the same basic information as walked, that a person entered a room; but each of these alternatives adds another layer of information, both denotative (that is, the specific and direct meaning) and connotative (implied or suggested associations).

I can write that someone said something, or I can instead use murmur, mumble, moan, mutter, blurt, bleat, bark, wail, whisper, hiss, stutter, shriek, or cry. Again, these words have different definitions, and they also convey information about emotional states.

All writing, not just fiction writing, can benefit when we give careful thought to our words. A bit of creativity can go a long way, even in something as prosaic as an email message.

For example, if you’re writing a message asking someone to fill out an employee information form, is it important, vital, or urgent? Each of these let’s the reader know that filling out the form is a big deal, but each conveys a different impression about what kind of big deal it is. (Of course, in choosing your words, you have to be honest. Don’t say that something is vital unless it really is vital for the reader, and not just something that will make your job easier. Don’t build yourself a reputation for crying wolf.)

It isn’t a “method” or “tool” for good writing, but gratitude is an essential mindset for writers.

People have a myriad of activities competing for their time and attention, even when they choose to read, they have endless choices of what to read. Each year, thousands of new books are published. Each month, new magazines hit the newsstands, and each day new newspapers are published. As if that isn’t enough, each moment someone somewhere updates a website with new articles, or new blog posts.

What we write doesn’t matter—novels, articles, essays, whitepapers, corporate reports, or email messages explaining the new vacation policy. People are free to choose whether to read what we write, read something else, or not read anything at all.

Given that, we should be grateful that any reader chooses to spend a bit if time reading something that we wrote, grateful that they’re giving their attention—however fleeting—to our words, to our ideas and thoughts.

And this gratitude should inspire us to do the best we can to convey our ideas and thoughts with grace and clarity. We should be inspired to do the work of writing and rewriting, scrutinizing words, sentences, and paragraphs, striving to make the meaning as clear as spring water.

I’m grateful for each reader who comes here to read my blog, and especially for those who respond in the comments or by email. The fact that you’ve chosen to come here, that you take the time to read my posts and respond helps motivate me to keep on writing, and to do my best to make the time you spend here worthwhile.

Thank you.

A pleasant surprise showed up in my mailbox the other day: a review copy of Scott Berkun’s Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management. I’ll post a review as soon as I can, because it seems a logical topic for Writing, Clear and Simple. After all, we need to manage our writing projects, do we not?

If the members of the U.S. Senate join their colleagues in the House of Representatives, plain language may soon become the law of the land. The House recently passed H.R. 3548, the Plain Language in Government Communications Act, which would require Federal agencies to use plain language in new or revised documents (letters, publications, forms, notices, or instructions) intended for public consumption.

Congressman Bruce Braley made the following comments about H.R. 3548 on the floor of the House of Representatives:

Anyone who’s done their own taxes knows the headache of trying to understand pages and pages of confusing forms and instructions.  There is no reason why the federal government can’t write tax documents and other public documents in language we can all understand.

Writing government documents in plain language will increase government accountability and will save Americans time and money.  Plain, straightforward language makes it easy for taxpayers to understand what the federal government is doing and what services it is offering.

What a concept: Government documents that are easy to understand.

I guess it made sense in Congress.  H.R. 3548 passed 376 to 1. (I wonder who voted against it, and why?)

A companion bill, S. 2291, has gone to the full Senate for a vote. Contact your senators and encourage them to support this bill.