Newspaper Editors

Writing

Writing is more than throwing words onto paper. It is a form of story telling that requires us first to determine in our own mind what the heart of the story is. What is its essence? Until we come to grips with that essential element, we should refrain from putting pen to paper.

Novelist Anne Dillard expresses this paramount premise in the following way:

“There’s no virtue in writing per se. It’s like dribbling. Can you make the shot? Is the question.”

A Veteran’s Vision
We gain further insight from our guru, Don Murray, whose wisdom stretches across a dozen books and hundreds of articles:

“Writing is thinking, and thought begins not with a conclusion, but with an itch, a hint, a clue, a question, a doubt, a wonder, a problem, an answer without a question, an image that refuses to be forgotten.

“Such fragments are caught on the wing, when I think my mind is somewhere else.”

What’s Your Vision?
Few of us have reached the level of a Dillard or a Murray, but we nevertheless have stories within us that need telling. And we should tell them in our own way, drawing word pictures with our signature attached. All that’s needed to begin with is a desire to tell our stories, to share them with others.

Mission, Goal and Objective
Our stories live within us, dying to be told so that they may live outside of us. We can either dribble out the words or write them right.

Be a Storyteller
Engage, instruct, entertain
Provide new perspective

What’s Right?
Specific aspects that enrich stories are:

Right focus, Right Approach, Right Thinking
Right tone, Right content, Right words

What’s Wrong
Specific aspects that detract from stories are:

Lack of single focus	Lack of structure
Lack of people	Lack of the unexpected
Lack of revealing detail	Lack of that little extra reporting
Lack of voice	Lack of revision

Recommendations
What are some tips that might enable inexperienced writers to learn what’s right?

Study the techniques of writers you like/respect
Write your story in your mind away from the computer:

“I assign the writing problem to my subconscious,” says Murray.

Decide structure & write fast
Let the story unfold
Tell the reader what she/he may not know