No, your topic isn't boring. (If you write it well)
No, your topic isn't boring. (If you write it well)
My front gate is currently barricaded by 6 inches of snow, so I should probably be writing some masterpiece. Instead, I’m rotting on the couch.
Watching The Holdovers. Watching The Kissing Booth. Watching Foe. Watching Pete Davidson’s special.
Except for the Davidson special, it wasn’t all a waste.
I’ve noticed something interesting — A writing technique I’ve never really been able to put my finger on.
See if you can guess it with these three examples
First, this scene from The Holdovers:
2 main characters are wandering through a museum.
Angus: Are we almost done?
Paul: What's your hurry? I thought you liked antiquity
Angus: In class, maybe. But I never think about it unless I need to.
Paul: Here. What do you see?
Angus looks at a plate. A naked Greek couple are seriously going at it.
Angus: Candy cane!
Paul: There's nothing new in human experience, Mr. Tully. Each generation thinks it invented debauchery, or suffering or rebellion, but every man's appetite and impulse, from the disgusting to the sublime, is on display right here, all around you.
It’s not the hypotaxis and parataxis balance. (Short sentences, then long ones). Guess again.
Example 2, from Maggie Smith’s You Could Make This Place Beautiful.
“One afternoon, I was listening to Derek DelGaudio, a master of sleight-of-hand, on NPR. He talked about secrets — their weight, their heft. He talked about how carrying them affects your breathing your speech, your movements… If you tell the truth, there's nothing to keep straight nothing to work out. The truth isn't easy but it's simple.”
Dialogue example, check. Prose example, check. Now, let’s watch Nicolas Carr do it in a journalism-based book — The Shallows.
“Every technology is an expression of human will. Through our tools we seek to expand our power and control over our circumstances — over nature, over time and distance, over one another. Our technologies can be divided, roughly into four categories…
Like I said, a bit more dense there, but the technique is still at play.
It’s this:
Vary your sentences between the specific and the general.
Whenever you write, there are specific details. To invite us in, tie those to general statements.
Watch again how this happens with The Holdovers…
And You Could Make this Place Beautiful…
And The Shallows…
Explaining this feels a bit like explaining water to fish. It’s easy to gloss over. Still, bad writing misses the mark on this technique. Great writing has it nailed down.
Small changes make a big difference.