SXSW '07: Writing, Better
[Writing, Better panel at SXSW with Greg Storey, Ethan Marcotte, Bronwyn Jones, and Erin Kissane]
Greg Storey found inspiration from essays read aloud on NPR. Luminaries like Daniel Shore, Baxter Black, Ira Glass and others all have individual voices and styles that come through in their writing. He wanted to learn how to do that. Writing works like design: you have to do it on a regular basis to get good at it.
With writing you have to get it right the first time. You put it out there and leave it alone and let it live. This is the common terror of writing: your ideas, your identity, your style is embedded in this chunk of content. Pushing it out there with the click of a publish button is a scary thing to get over.
This is important to bring up because amateurs often get stuck at this phase. People struggle with finding words to express their ideas and getting rid of the anxiety around writing is a difficult process.
Getting started and being patient is the only way to do it.
- Write a kitchen table conversation, tell what you are trying to say to yourself as if you don't know it. Make it a story.
- Dance like nobody's watching
Think of language as a set of symbols that need to be learned. Punctuation is a perfect example of this. It takes time to learn and you will make mistakes but don't let a semicolon hold up what you are trying to do. The "English police" will let you know if you are wrong but learn from that and let it make you better, don't let it stop you from writing.
The purpose of this is to hone your voice, to find your style. Try different approaches. Think about the original inspiration. Look to content on NPR or in the New Yorker for what they are doing, read for their craft not just the content. These authors regularly immerse themselves in something new, in totally new worlds and then tell the stories they see.
The Internet is a mosh pit not a truck. With more people on the Internets someone will email you to let you know how much of a moron you are. Do not let this deter you from writing or from writing the way you want to write. Look for useful criticism in these letters but don't let it change your styles, let it help you refine your style.
Ethan Marcotte's background is in English literature but now is a web designer. What used to terrify him was a blank piece of paper, now the truest form of terror is a blank Photoshop document. When you start designing you look to outside inspiration not to plagiarize but to find solutions that work. In writing you can do the same thing.
- Read as a writer
See: To a Locomotive in Winter by Walt Whitman
See: Screenwriter's Blues by M Doughty
See: Thelonious Monk because inspiration isn't just in writing
Look for the discussions between writers or musicians. See how they influence each-other. See the patterns and evolutions that occur and try to read with that eye.
Looking at Paradise Lost through this lens you realize that Milton is essentially making a giant literary mix tape. He jumps from style to style allowing himself to pull from all of his influences to create this masterwork.
Milton acknowledge the role that Virgil and Homer play and riffs on their examples to create his own unique story.
See: Watch [missed the author's name but it's about characters from the comic book universe remixed into new stories]
David Sedaris has said that he actually types out passages that inspire him from great authors just to know what it feels like.
See: On Radio by Sarah Vowell
See: In the Company of Wolves by Angela Carter
See: PG Wodehouse
Look for the rockstars who can inspire you. Get past the aesthetic reaction and explore why you like it and what you are reacting to. It is not about writing like them, it is about learning from how they write, about having a conversation with them.
Bronwyn Jones is an in-house marketing copy-writer at Apple and she is here to talk about style.
Stunk and White define is as the principle elements of English. But most people think of style as the individual author's voice on the page. For today let's think of style as being medium specific. What medium should we look at... how about the web?
Web
World Wide Web
website
Web site
Yuck
Why do we let journalists tell us how to use words on the web? They simply beat us to the punch. There are web writers everywhere and that's what makes the web so awesome and is what sets web style apart. The web is interactive and or style should be too. Avoid talking at your readers, find a voice that talks to them.
There are distractions on the web and this is why you should build a writer into your information architecture process. This requires cleverness but is worth the effort.
So what about some advice for writing on the web:
- Write in email. Staring at blank word processing document is terrifying. Email is far less scary, it just isn't like that. It is an easy place to just get started. It is a conversation medium and gets you into the right frame of mind.
- Learn enough to fake it
- Nobody knows the rules
Even EB White knew his limitations. Everyone cheats so just cheat. Do whatever it takes to just get words down on paper.
Erin Kissane is on this panel because she edits A List Apart. Knowing who you are writing for is incredibly important. This isn't true only for technical writing but holds in fiction.
Don't be too narrow or too broad. Find what you are trying to say and know who it is for. Find your kernel of insight and cultivate it.
- Focus
- Structure
- Clarity
Decide who you are writing for at the beginning. It helps to think of writing as an argument. It is good to have supporting examples but don't let that take up your whole essay.
Make sure you have transitions between your points. Don't just use bullet points, really write language as a conversation.
Use the right amount of jargon for your audience.
Disorganized process:
- Free writing near a topic
- Then do something that looks like an outline
- Moves chunks around to look like an actual argument. Add examples.
- Make sure it's clear. Read it to someone.
You don't have to be an organized writer. These methods work across genre, they are tools regardless of your process.
Whatever you do, don't do an outline first. Just start writing.
So the point of this panel is to encourage everyone to just get started. Find inspiration from areas your wouldn't consider. There are rules out there but don't let them get in the way of your voice. Don't think you have to use writing tools or that there is a magical solution out there. Writers use different things to get their ideas down.
If you can, get an editor. A good editor will help you foster your voice and focus your writing.
Versioning tools, like WriteBoards, are a helpful way to get your words down and keep moving forward.
A companion web site to this panel will be available shortly. It will be onwritingbetter.com.
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Who is this guy?
Great article. I plan to link my readers to your site soon. Keep up the good work.
Scott Abel
TheContentWrangler.com