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Mike
Carruthers:
What is good writing?
Fred Lybrand:
There are two pieces to good writing; one is just getting it
correct. And when it's correct, it means people can understand
what you actually said.
Fred Lybrand,
creator of The Writing
Course, says good writing must be clear - but clarity isn't
enough, it has to be interesting.
Where people
are glad they read it - so that there are dynamics in the writing
that invite you to read the next sentence and the next sentence
and make it all the way to the end.
An example of
interesting writing is the first line of the book, Through the
Looking Glass by Lewis Carol.
That one, for
example, starts with: It was obviously the black cat's fault.
Now already, aren't you interested? It actually invites you
to want to read the next sentence and know what the cat has
done. And what most people do is - you know the old "Tell
em what you're gonna tell em, tell em what you told em"-
great for clarity, crummy for interest.
Good writing,
says Fred, is about telling a story and you're probably better
at it than you think you are.
Everyone seems
to know how to do this when they tell a story to children. They
say, "Did I ever tell you about the time when I traveled
to a mountain made entirely of glass?" Well the kids are
suddenly going, " Oh, what happened?" And you're just
making it up but that's it, and then what, and then what? Because
that's how humans are structured - they like the mystery, they
like the chase of the mystery and they like the resolution.
You can link
to Fred's website
from ours: somethingyoushouldknow.net
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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