A Word on Writing

A few times in my blog I have mentioned a writer’s group that I like to attend.  Are you curious about what these writers actually do at these meetings?  Try out this exercise:

1) Pick out a random picture (or better yet, have someone else find one for you)
2) Study it for several minutes
3) Write about half a page about what the picture depicts…take it from any angle, whatever comes to your mind.  The point is to just get writing! 
4) After you have written about half a page, stop.  (If you’re really going to try this, then don’t read past this sentence until you’re done!)

Now, go back through and cross out all adjectives and adverbs.  Re-write (or read aloud) your 1/2-page without adjectives and adverbs.  What sounds better?  What version is more effective at getting your message across?  Which version is more precise?

My mentor’s point was that although adjectives and adverbs have a purpose, nouns and verbs are the words that move our language.  Use more of them!  But avoid verbosity.  In the words of the poet Robert Southey, “If you would be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams.  The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.”**

What follows is my attempt at this writing exercise; I stopped at step 4 like the directions said.   For inspiration, a friend handed me a postcard from a museum promoting their Titanic exhibit.  It showed a painting of the ship, cutting through dark waters towards its untimely destruction.  The result:

“Consciousness is like an ocean.  It’s mysterious and deep, and most of us go about our daily lives just floating on its surface.  But what lies underneath, beyond the reach of the fingers of light?  Sometimes in moments of reflection, my mind probes deeper.  What did I remember of my grandmother’s funeral in Lexington, and how did I come to have the Mickey Mouse watch that I treasured as a child? 

More often than not, I cannot recall such things on command.  Memories float up to the surface of my consciousness at odd times, such as when I am waiting for Carla to ring up my purchase of bread and Red Vines…”

So my paragraphs could use a little polishing, but it’s a great exercise.  There are many directions you could take this–perhaps what you wrote about (if you actually did the exercise) could lead to some publishable material!

**From Advice to Writers, compiled and edited by Jon Winokur (1999).