Beauty Is Pain

I do a lot of persuasive writing for my job. It may be writing grant proposals, final reports, appeals, or thank you letters. All of them are very carefully written. Even our form letters go through multiple drafts before we print out the batch of them (actually, they are most important since hundreds of people will be seeing them [we also update our form letters every year, because they should not stagnate, plus information changes]).

Working with my boss is the most amazing process. She has over 50 years of experience in the field and is a wealth of knowledge. When I first started working with her, I was mostly taking dictation, but as I did so, she was explaining why she used the words she did. She often stopped to think about what she wanted to say, how she wanted to say it. It was so weird to me when we had a form letter, then we totally changed the format of the form letter. It was like, how come it was good enough last year, and now it's not? More importantly, who cares? Who really reads these things that carefully? Foundations probably get so many application that they're scanning through them anyway. Why fuss so much about it?

Now, I totally understand it. People are affected by words. People are unwittingly affected by words. People who quickly scan through text are still affected by the specific words you use.

And how do I know this to be true? Because today I thought about how my heart sinks when somebody says something juuust right. I thought about how attracted I am to people with good vocabularies who know how to use them. And when I realized how very much I am swayed by saying something in one particular way, I understood that all of the struggle and difficulty of wording document juuust right is completely worth it.

Beauty is pain. I kind of hate that saying in general, but it kind of works here. If you want the most effective writing possible, you will have to pay for it. Pay with your physical energy, mental energy, and your time.

Although these blog posts are first drafts, I do edit them as I write. This post I was careful with in my wording, especially in the beginning. It takes more time and energy, but damn it, it is worth everything I put into it to make these products which make me happy.

Write It Up

People often come to me with story ideas they have. I kinda love this. Sometimes hearing a story idea is the best part of the whole experience; it is full of energy, hope, and potential (and they bring it to me). The problem, though, is that sometimes hearing a story idea is the best part of the whole experience.

When people come to me, they generally want one of two things: blind support, or critical feedback. I'm pretty decent at reading people, but nowadays I always ask them upfront which one they're looking for. The irony is that it doesn't really matter which they say; they're going to get the same response.

If I like your idea, I'm going to tell you to write it up. You've got a great start with good ideas and it is simply the next step toward the final draft.

If I don't like your idea, I'm still going to tell you to write it up. There is no point in crushing somebody's dreams, or even just their energy, because I don't like something or I don't see the quality. I do not represent humanity. I don't even represent my demographic. I am just me. If you want to know how Kevin Bahler feels, I can tell you (my apologies to the one or two other Kevin Bahler's out there). Otherwise, I'm just one man's opinion.

Still, I have a certain obligation. People are coming to me. They trust me enough to share their ideas and to ask for my feedback. If I don't like something, I will tell them so (with a nice sugar coating). In addition, I will make suggestions to things that might make the story more compelling.

As I said earlier, though, the best part about the story idea phase is the potential in it. The story is yet unwritten. That means it can become literally anything. Authors grow and develop, as do their stories. So much creation happens while writing that first draft. I need to encourage and support people in sitting down and writing that first draft, in maintaining that creative spark and letting the story blossom. Once it has been put to paper and is a fully-written draft, then the story can be truly judged. Until then, there's nothing you can do but write it up.

Use Contractions

There's a reason we have contractions in language. They're easier to say and make for smoother communication. Although formal writing frowns on it, I still believe that more often than not, it's a good idea to use them.

One interesting thing I've found, though, is how often I don't use them when I'm writing. And I have figured out why I miss them, too. Although I write the way I talk, it is a slower process. During that process, I usually go one word at a time. So no matter how fast my fingers may be moving or my brain may be processing, it is still doing one word followed by one more word, and so on.

Because of that, contractions are often overlooked. In order to use them, I would have to be thinking multiple words ahead of what I'm writing, which I'm largely not doing. Sometimes, I do have a whole thought in my head, so I can use contractions. And sometimes a particular wording is awkward that it breaks my focus and I make the change immediately.

Usually, a cursory proofreading will catch all of the spots where a contraction would smooth out a sentence (though I don't proofread my posts, which is why you probably have come across more than a couple here.

One final note, though. Contractions are usually a good idea, not always. Sometimes I choose to separate two words because it sounds better that way. Sometimes I do it to add emphasis to one of those words. In this post, there are some contractions I chose not to use because it felt right.

Tell me if you think I was wrong to do it.

Writing Is Lonely

I watched documentary on the making of South Park that was aired on Sunday. It was fantastic. There was a very short scene where Trey Parker was talking about the part of the process where he is actually writing the script. In that part, he talks about how lonely and kind of sad it is.

The creative process is a wonderful group activity (provided you have a good group with a good group dynamic). You can bounce ideas off of each other and generate a truly amazing collective work. However, that is all pre-planning. That's conceptual stuff. When it comes to putting the words on paper, that is a one-man job.

You simply don't need two or three people all sharing a keyboard. And trying to collectively type will either be exceedingly time-consuming or exceedingly infuriating (imagine bouncing ideas for every single sentence).

So, it is one person in front of a notebook or a keyboard. And in that moment, you are alone. To extroverted people, this is murder. The same is true for the easily bored. Even I find myself constantly switching between my Word document and my web browser when I am starting up. It's not until I get really into a writing session that I stop juggling different activities, just to avoid that feeling of isolation. (Once I get the ball rolling, I get immersed in my world and don't feel so alone.)

It's no surprise that writers tend to be introverts. They're the people who want to spend time being alone. If that's you, then you've got no problem. Enjoy yourself, but do try the group dynamic to see what it's like. If loneliness does get under your skin, then either bite the bullet and tough it out, or find a way to ease into a session. Whatever your case may be, if you let that isolation become an unscalable wall, you will not be going very far.

Choose Your Words Carefully

Our mouth tends to work faster than our brains. Our fingers do the same. We communicate, then we realize that we said something that we shouldn't have.

In instant communication like speech and text messaging, you will be largely screwed when that happens. Fortunately, writing is planned, so you can choose your words carefully.

Of course, you still have to have enough thought to actually do that, to read your words as though you were an outsider and think about how it might be interpreted. (You might also get a good editor who can do that for you.)

It truly amazes me how much difference it makes, saying something in one way or another. It is the power of words. Be careful with that power. It is very easy to harm yourself with it.

Tell Things To Your Audience

Too much emphasis is placed on being subtle with writing. I agree that subtlety is good. I agree that we should not be heavy-handed with explanation or overbearing with narration. But the excessive emphasis leads writers to have the opposite problem: they don't give enough information to the audience.

I myself am a prime example. Whenever I write a first draft, my editors all agree that I haven't written enough. Scenes feel glossed over. Characters are confusing or not understandable. All the problems I have come down to me not explaining enough with my words.

Sure, I can try to hide behind the "I'm being succinct" excuse, but it is just that: hiding and making excuses. And you will not grow and will not create your best work if you do those things.

I need to suck it up and accept that I am not explaining enough. I think that I am leaving things for the audience to ponder and decide on, but that is not what I am ending up with. I am ending up with a lack of crucial information that would explain why things are happening as they are.

Stories need to be compelling. People need to be satisfied when they read them, not confused. Pondering comes after finishing a satisfying story. We think about what we read, what we experienced (vicariously), what we might have chosen to do if we had the choice, how we might live with the decisions that were made.

But, never forget that such thoughts and entertainment will not happen if you do not give enough concrete information for the audience to grab onto. If your tendency is to write too little, try too right too much. Most likely, you will end up writing just enough.

Nuances Are Hard

Continuing from the previous post, extreme characters are much easier to make. The one downside to them is that, because they are simple, you can only make simple stories with them.

A more realistic person is very nuanced. They can be completely conflicted, hold contradictory beliefs, be involved in completely unrelated activities and groups. It makes things significantly more difficult to create and really get your head around, but generally, you get a much more powerful and gripping story out of it.

Although I do try to go along for the ride when reading a story, I cannot help but make predictions on what happens next. Simple characters have significantly fewer options in a given situation that would be justifiable. Nuanced characters have more. As such, they are much harder to predict, and thus provide a bigger punch when they reach that critical point.

When you are ready, work on characters like these. You can borrow ideas from real people, but I recommend avoiding building a character on an existing person. They tend to feel like hollow facsimiles.

You're creative. Create your own nuanced person.