Power Writing: Part 1

I’m always interested in finding ways to make my writing more POWERFUL.
Today I read through my notebook and came across this quote:

The adjective is the enemy of the noun. – Voltaire

I remember exploding the first time I read this quote. So true!
Let’s say I’m describing a sneaky, immoral doctor. I could hem and haw and try to get the reader to see what I’m trying to say,
or I could use the perfect noun and get my message across more directly:

Weak: He was a sneaky, immoral doctor.
Strong: He was a charlatan.

Bam. Done. Message conveyed. Time to get on with my story.

So for today’s post, I’m letting Voltaire’s quote inspire me to ‘power write.’
Here are 6 ways to achieve this.

1. Expunge every adjective and adverb from your writing.
Instead, utilize perfect nouns and verbs.

2. Never begin a sentence with “There was.”
Weak: There was a knock at the door.
Strong: A man knocked at the door.

3. When choosing a tense, think: simple.
Weak: He had spoken. He has spoken. He was speaking. He would have liked to have spoken.
Strong: He spoke.

4. Use the active voice.
Weak: She was always brought to tears by the first snow of the season. (Passive)
Strong: She cried during the first snow of the season. (Active)

5. Use positive actions. (Say what happened instead of what didn’t happen.)
Weak: The child did not enjoy going to the museum.
Strong: The child detested going to the museum.

6. Avoid clauses using the –ing construction.
Weak: Removing her mask, she turned to face him.
Strong: She removed her mask and faced him.

7. Do not use clichés. At all. Ever.
(Exception to this rule: You may use a cliché if you change it slightly. This is an attention-grabber.)
Weak: He took the newcomer under his wing.
Strong: He buried the newcomer under his wing.

Write these 7 suggestions on a Post-it note to hang above your desk. Whenever you are editing your writing, use it as a check list to pump up the power!

Inspire me, oh poetry!

Sometimes reading poetry is my best inspiration.
Because often a poet desires to say the universe, but with the fewest words possible.
I always think of the six-word poem attributed to Ernest Hemingway.
(It’s often referred to as a six-word novel.)

For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn

Wow, right?

But for today, I want to share a poem with you that I stumbled upon in the library one day, early last year, when I was looking through the literary magazine, Poetry (January 2013).

I don’t buy it, says
the scientist.
Replies the frail
and faithful heart,
it’s not for sale.

Seventeen exquisite words by Wendy Videlock. Seventeen words that made me say, “Yes, that’s right! That’s how I feel.” That’s what good writing is supposed to do.
I was overcome by how much she was able to communicate with so few words.
I immediately wrote them down in my notebook so I’d always remember.
I reread them often and hope someday I can write like this.

Writer’s Block

I don’t feel so much like I have ‘writer’s block.’
I have so many things I want to write about. Ideas aren’t the problem.
The problem is that I can’t get myself to sit down and focus.
There are a million things standing in my way.
The dog needs to be walked,
I saw a scary-ass bug in the bathroom today and really need to spray my apartment with something that won’t make me grow a third arm,
my significant other is telling me, ‘we need to talk,’
I find out today that the lightning pain in my tooth won’t go away unless I get a ROOT CANAL,
(I keep putting ROOT CANAL in all caps whenever I text someone about it),
And then Obama decides to start bombing something called ISIS which sounds eerily like an operating system.
So I don’t think I have WRITER’S BLOCK as much as I’m facing a WRITER’S BLOCKADE.
I want to write.
I need to write.
If the world would just stop falling apart for a second, maybe I could get some shit accomplished.
To combat WRITER’S BLOCKADE, I took a quick look through my #freelance writer’s notebook (hashtags make me crazy) to find some tips I’ve learned over the years to combat WRITER’S BLOCKADE.

Here are my notes:
1) Get in the habit of writing down your brainstorming sessions.
This is a great reason to have a #freelance writing notebook. I will go through the day and often be inspired by the strangest things. If I don’t write them down, these inspirations disappear into the ether forever. But on a night like tonight, when I can’t think straight because my tooth is killing me, my idea to blog about a road trip seems magical.
2) Hone your observational skills.
Take time every week to go out into the world and write descriptive observations of what you see, smell, hear, taste and touch. I’ve also found it helpful to take pictures with my phone and write about it later.
3) Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Practice writing in the style of your favorite author. I need to do this more. One of my favorite essayists is Joel Stein, who has a column in Time. I think he is one of the most talented essayists around today. I carry around his column on tough days when I need to ensure a smile. I’m not kidding. In fact, I recently brought his column to Divorce Court not long ago…
4) Have more than one egg in your basket.
Don’t work on one project at a time. If you’re writing a novel, also be working on a magazine article and a poem. This is helpful because when you just can’t get the characters of your novel to cooperate and do what you want, you can take a break and write an article about the evils of gluten.

Those are the best pieces of advice I could find in my notebook. Can you add to this list?

Favorite First Lines

How important is the first line of a book?

“It was a dark and stormy night…”

You’ve heard that line repeated a million times, but what do you know about it?

1n 1830, Edward Bulwer-Lytton opened his novel, Paul Clifford, with those seven words. Most people, myself included, have always assumed those seven words comprise the entire first sentence of the novel. But remember, writers of yore were quite verbose. Bulwer-Lytton’s first sentence is actually 58 words long! Here it is in all its glory:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

Authors are much stingier with words these days, hoarding them like some private treasure. Brevity is the current style. It’s also becoming a necessity due to our media-driven society. Everyone’s goal is to get a message across in as few words as possible. Words? Forget words. Now our messages have to fit into 140-character tweets.

Am I complaining? Do I wish we’d go back to the days of 58-word opening sentences? No way. I’m certainly a product of this culture. With so many books, magazines, and blogs to read, even I need to be grabbed by the first sentence or else I’m moving on. So, I’ve become a collector of favorite first sentences. Here are a few:

“If you’re going to read this, don’t bother.” (Choke, by Chuck Palahniuk)

“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.” (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson)

“It was a bright cold day in April, and all the clocks were striking thirteen.” (1984, by George Orwell)

“Can I explain why I wanted to jump off the top of a tower block?” (A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby)

“This is a story about a family and, as there is a ghost involved, you might call it a ghost story.” (For One More Day, by Mitch Albom)

But for my favorite book of all time, it was the first two sentences that captured me.

“What about a tea kettle? What if the spout opened and closed when the steam came out, so it would become a mouth, and it could whistle pretty melodies, or do Shakespeare, or just crack up with me?” (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer)

What’s your favorite first line?

What Makes a Great Writer?

In order to be a writer, you have to love to write.
Ok, we all know that.
But to be a real writer, a successful writer, you have to love to read.
Disagree?
Well, think of a chef.
A chef loves to cook.
But, more importantly, a chef loves to eat.
The cooking part – understanding ingredients and how they work together – is of course important.
But the passion comes from eating.
A chef will taste a soufflé and be sent on a journey. His senses will be vibrating, and he’ll be having flashbacks of something he tasted thirty years ago. He’ll be inspired to get in the kitchen and begin creating.
Every great chef loves to eat.
And every great writer loves to read.
That’s how I know I’m a writer and can’t be anything else.
Because I love to read.
In fact, reading makes me so overcome with emotion that I have to be careful what I read in public.
Long train ride? I have to ask myself how crowded it’s going to be.
When I read something sad, I don’t just get teary-eyed.
If it’s well-written, those pages will be getting wet.
And if it’s funny?
During a recent train ride, I was rereading, “Sh*t My Dad Says” and had to put the book away because my laughter was disturbing those around me.
So if you’re thinking of being a writer, ask yourself, “How much to do I love to read?”