Last Updated: May 20, 1999
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National Writers’
Workshop
1. Think of a plain-spoken person you like. Tell your story to
that person. Put up a picture or drawing of that person in your work space,
to remind you to write to him or her.
2. Keep several short samples of great writing at your desk.
Before you write, read a sample of a voice you like. Get it in your head.
Clean out bureaucratic voices. Keep at least one sample of your own best
voice.
3. Read your story aloud as you go. Imagine you are telling it
to your person. Rewrite anything that sounds stiff. If your tongue trips,
rewrite.
4. Tell your story to a real person who speaks plain English.
Record it or ask the listener to write down your words, as well as they
can.
5. Abstraction and concepts breed muddy language, particularly
when they are in the subject of the sentence. Have you framed your story
in terms of a concept? Instead, can you focus on a person or people or
living things? A theoretical person?
6. If you’re stuck, get up and move. Walk around the office or
up and down the hall. Leave the building if you can. Exercise several minutes.
Change your metabolism. Sometimes movement automatically clears your mind
and/or changes your voice.
7. Think of your story in sensory ways:
-
What kind of movie will this approach create? What’s the setting? Where
are we? Movement?
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Can you draw it? What kind of image are you planting in the reader’s brain?
Sharp, blurry?
-
Does it have rhythm? Can you sing it? Do the words come out easily when
you read them aloud?
-
What would the poet see? Hear? Smell? Taste? What image or metaphor captures
the heart of the story? What are the telling details?
8. Your workspace: Does it help or hinder you? How can you make
it more helpful? What do you look at? Hear? Lighting? Reminders to storytell?
9. Channel-changing rituals: What do you do — before you write
— to get yourself onto a clear-writing channel?
10. Physical comfort: Do you hurt your body (and maybe your stories)
by your physical writing habits?
Long is the writing coach for The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette.
