Last Updated: November 09, 1999
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Good writing
Taut, well-tuned stories draw readers along while conserving
space
I f you’re like most newspaper writers, you face increasing demands
to squeeze more information into less space. Often, this means going back
and cutting your story or, worse, having someone else cut it for you just
so it fits the page.
Given this reality, it makes sense to write shorter stories so that
others can’t find flab in your work. You must invest more effort, but you’re
more likely to produce a lively, tightly written story.
Understand, this is not a plea to write only 12-inch stories. I simply
suggest that rather than ask yourself, “How much space can I have?” you
ask, “How little space can I use?” Instead of 60 inches, can you write
40? Or 14 rather than 20? Don’t write short for the sake of shortness itself,
but so that you learn to make every word work hard.
The key to doing so is not cutting, but selecting.
Dumping your notebook on the screen and then slashing it to fit produces
stories that look like they’ve been through a blender. But by selecting
only the best material before you write, you stand a better chance of producing
a story with impact whose every sentence sings.
That means you have two jobs: choosing a focus and writing tightly.
Choosing a focus
Focus begins not at the keyboard, but at the idea stage. This is where
you target your reporting on specific, concrete ideas rather than vague
notions that you hope will produce a tale.
Rather than reporting on poverty and health care, for example, you can
focus on the working poor on the west side who have no bus service and
can’t afford a cab to reach the low-income clinic on the south side.
Even more concretely: Why not show one low-income west side family’s
struggle to obtain health care at that clinic? Their experience will likely
illustrate everything you want to tell your readers on both poverty and
health care, and will make the story more understandable, immediate and
real. It will also save you needless reporting.
Based on what you’ve learned, negotiate a length with your editor and
design your story to fit.
When it comes time to write, decide what you do and don’t need from
your notes. Here are some strategies:
-
Ask some simple focusing questions: What is the story’s dominant meaning?
State it in a single sentence. What’s your point? What should the headline
say? What should the budget line say? Perhaps most effective of all: How
would I tell this to my mother?
-
Try Don Fry’s strategy: List the most important things, then cut the list
in half and organize what remains.
-
Ask: What happened? What caused it to happen? What’s likely to happen next?
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Ask yourself what your readers need to know about the story. Ask their
questions, and mark your notes for the material that answers them, in order.
-
Devise a written plan, if only in code or single words and phrases, so
that you know where you’re going before you write. Mark your notes for
the elements that match your plan.
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Choose an ending, so you (and your readers) have a sense of destination
and know when to quit.
Writing Tightly
Now, with your outline or marked-up notes at hand, create a draft. And
keep a few things in mind:
Don’t waste time clearing your throat. Go straight to your main point,
and use your strongest material to take your readers there. Use only scenes
or anecdotes that move the story along, ignoring the rest of your notes.
Don’t use quotes just to have them in the story. Target the ones that
work, that convey information with more impact than you can deliver by
paraphrasing.
As best you can, keep to one idea per sentence. That makes them more
understandable. But also vary your sentence length and complexity so you
don’t sound like a first-grade reading text.
And put your best material at the end of the sentence or paragraph.
As Poynter’s Roy Peter Clark says: Any word at the end of a sentence plays
jazz.
Use attribution sparely. Use only as much as the reader needs for clarity
or to hear you say: I didn’t make this up.
Use proper nouns — titles, names of groups — seldomly. They clutter
sentences.
Declare war on “to be” verbs, which lack power. Seek verbs that work
hard: “amble” instead of “walk” or “smash” instead of “break.”
Read your work aloud to give your ear a sense of its pace and rhythm.
If it’s difficult to speak, it’s equally hard to read. If it sounds out
of tune, go back and sharpen your nouns and verbs.
Finally: Revise, revise, revise. Be tough on every word. Do the hard
work now and you’ll spare yourself some agony later when the copy
desk calls.
McGrath is special projects and enterprise editor at The Wichita
(Kan.) Eagle. He can be reached at kmcgrath@wichitaeagle.com
or 316/268-6680.
