{"id":67,"date":"2013-08-14T21:53:27","date_gmt":"2013-08-14T21:53:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zulfiqarblog.com\/?p=67"},"modified":"2013-09-02T03:31:06","modified_gmt":"2013-09-02T03:31:06","slug":"3-simple-maxims-of-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zulfiqarblog.com\/?p=67","title":{"rendered":"3 Simple Maxims of Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his article in the NY Times http:\/\/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com\/2013\/07\/22\/should-we-write-what-we-know\/<\/a>, Ben Yagoda reminds us of three maxims of writing.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Kill your darlings<\/li>\n
  2. Show, don\u2019t tell<\/li>\n
  3. Write what you know<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    All three of these deceptively simple adages are known, maybe even understood, at varying levels by every writer.\u00a0 But living them is quite another thing.<\/p>\n

    Being ruthless on your own creation is not a skill that comes easily.\u00a0 Yet it is even more necessary in writing than if you are creating a painting.\u00a0 You can more easily justify the forms and colors in a painting by telling yourself \u2018I am making this for myself.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care if anyone else likes it or not.\u2019\u00a0 However, when you put pen to the paper (or fingers to the keyboard), it is rarely for your own gratification.\u00a0 Whether you admit it to yourself or not, the real desire is to have others read your words and be moved by them. \u00a0To do that, you must excise every unnecessary word from your creation.\u00a0 And if you cannot do it, hire a good developmental editor to do it for you.<\/p>\n

    Making the reader share the image the writer has in his or her mind is even more difficult.\u00a0 It is easier to describe the scenario is excruciating detail. \u00a0But doing it in a way that protects it from becoming a mechanical description is where the art of writing comes into play.\u00a0 Giving the reader just enough\u2026 bringing the reader along to be in the same place, real or conjured, as the writer, while allowing the reader to experience it through their own senses, biases and backgrounds\u2026well, that is the magic.<\/p>\n

    The third one is tricky.\u00a0 Certainly, while the writing is much more powerful if you intimately know what you are writing about, I do not think it is always necessary to have lived through something to write effectively about it.\u00a0 I would like to think that meticulous research and an active imagination can come pretty close to living through something.\u00a0 It is not a substitute for the experience, but it can be pretty close. \u00a0What I do agree with is that, however you do it, you must know what you are writing about.<\/p>\n

    Try following these tenets next time you write.\u00a0 You will see the difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In his article in the NY Times http:\/\/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com\/2013\/07\/22\/should-we-write-what-we-know\/, Ben Yagoda reminds us of three maxims of writing. Kill your darlings Show, don\u2019t tell Write what you know All three of these deceptively simple adages are known, maybe even understood, at varying levels by every writer.\u00a0 But living them is quite another thing. Being ruthless on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zulfiqarblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zulfiqarblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zulfiqarblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zulfiqarblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zulfiqarblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.zulfiqarblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70,"href":"https:\/\/www.zulfiqarblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions\/70"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zulfiqarblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zulfiqarblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zulfiqarblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}