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Twenty secrets of good writing
Notes of a talk given by Roger Steer
Here's one example of a piece of writing:
Ecclesiastes 9:11: I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.
Out of 46 words, it has 40 words of one syllable and 6 of two. The cadence is magnificent.
It has vivid images (something people can visualise): runners in a race, soldiers in a battle, bread (NIV, weaker: food), the sun...
George Orwell, among other things, the author of Animal Farm and 1984, rewrote the verse in a modern, but much uglier style (deliberately ugly to illustrate bad style): Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena suggests that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must inevitably be taken into account.
What's wrong with this?
- average length of word has increased dramatically
- no cadence at all
- no vivid images; nothing for people to visualise. Instead a whole series of abstract words: consideration (words ending in 'ion' nearly always abstract and usually rather boring!); phenomena; activities; element and so on.
If you were asked to write an article (or preach a sermon) on goodness what would be the most effective way to do it? Tell them about a good man or woman. The word goodness is an abstract one. Many abstract ideas can be effectively communicated in terms of people. Jesus the master of this art with his parables. Which brings us to stories. Shortly, I'll talk about the value of stories and suggest some story-telling techniques.
The writing is pretentious: a striving for effect which fails in its object. If you want to write well, avoid striving for effect.
Someone said that good writing should be new, you and true. A lot in that. The 'you' bit means that you don't try to sound like someone else or write in someone else's style - although we can certainly learn from other people's techniques. But while we can learn from good writing techniques and pick that up from others, what emerges must be us. Just as it's good practical psychology to 'be yourself' to it's a good rule for writing.
What was the writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes' secret? Did it all come from his pen like magic? Was it dictated by God? What was his technique?
Some clues in Ecclesiastes 12:9-14
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