Writing is a logic problem
I love logic problems. I used to buy those books when I was a kid because I loved them so much. “Carrie has a blue dress. The person in the green dress wore yellow sandals. What color was Elaine’s hat?” Mmm, good times!
I think writing is a lot like that. For marketing writing I go to my client and they say, “We’re going with urgency here and we have an image of a snake.” So then I sit at my laptop, thesaurus at the ready, and brainstorm. Urgency. Danger. Fear. Blah blah blah. Then I type up, “Don’t wait for danger to strike! Act now and secure your safety!” I send it to my client. He says, “Mmm, too scary. Urgency without fear.” And back I go to write up, “Be prepared. Act now before something really awful happens.” Etc. etc.
Sometimes I have to write something wrong before I can know how to get it right because maybe my client doesn’t know what he wants until he sees what he doesn’t want.
Creative nonfiction is really similar in some ways. I was telling Brett that one of the things I like about it is that you only have the truth to work with — you can’t make something up — but you have too choose which truths to share and how to share them to give a broader, more subjective truth. So if I’m writing about the frustrations of motherhood, I’m not going to share the same stories as I might if I were writing about nostalgia for my kids early years. You could read one and see a disatisfied mom or read the other and see a total maternal figure and they would both be true even if they seem contradictory.
The more complicated, more nuanced a topic is then the harder and more fun it is to write because then there’s room to shade stories with a little paradox but again, it takes artistry to know what to leave out and put in and how to highlight something without taking attention away from your central theme, etc.
I love writing. (happy sigh)
well, maybe that’s why I’m not as good at writing as I wish I were. I thought I loved it, but maybe I don’t… because I’m afraid I cannot be good at it.
And you’re pretty good at it too!
You ain’t so bad yourself! (and I get gripped by fear pretty often, too. Write anyway!!)
(ooo, your layout is all changed. me liketh the splash of auburn!)
(and yes, this goes to show how poor i’ve been in leaving comments, though i do read (and enjoy!) a good chunk of your posts. ain’t google reader a swell thing?)
this just goes to show what a difference there are in people, huh? i think i totally understand what you’re talking about, in writing being a logic problem and how little tweaks in structure or voice or examples you use will give a signficiantly different overall effect…
… and maybe *because* i’m sensitive to this fact,
writing things where i’m supposed to write for other people (ex English essays) drive me nuts. and not in a fun way!
one of my favourite composers for concert band, Eric Whitacre, said that composing is like torture for him; but then i know that back when i was involved in artistic endeavors, it was somehow /fun/ to pore over — for hours — little tweaks and combinations, trying to find *just* what effect will satisfy you. (thrift shopping can be like this, too! my goodness, there are times when i’d spend literally 5 hours in a thrift store, trying to see if there just *might* be a way to make that (say) metallic green shirt work and look less than completely silly
).
I couldn’t agree more! WOW, well written!!
I start all my writing sessions by holding and or staring at my dictionary and saying ‘all the words you need are in this ONE book, you just have to figure out what order works for X client’. Been doing this almost 15 years and this little self talk is the solution to all my equations.