Things Writers Do, Part 8: Play

Writers need to play with words, phrases, and clauses to create their best sentences. I remember needing to write a sentence that went something like this:

Actually, the state of a contaminated substance extending into infinity is the problem that is important regardless of what critics think.

The sentence was clunky and wordy, so I edited it to read:

Although critics challenge the assumption, the infinite presence of a contaminated substance can cause problems for generations. 

But before editing the final draft, I had some fun with the idea that the multiple meanings of the word matter could have replaced several words in the original sentence:

As a matter of fact, the matter of contaminated matter as a matter of infinity is the matter that matters no matter what critics think.

What's the point? Writers sometimes make play of their work to lessen its gravity and increase its pleasure.

Things Writers Do, Part 7: Concede

Good writers test their assumptions with verifiable evidence and quickly concede alternative viewpoints. Examples of such evenhanded reporting appear in Robert Greene's The 48 Laws of Power (1998) and Malcolm Gladwell's Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (2000). 

In The 48 Laws of Power, Greene lays down with historical evidence the key principles that underlie his laws, and he concludes each chapter with reversals that show when those principles do not apply or can be abused at their most extreme.

In Blink, Gladwell asserts his major thesis about the usefulness of intuitive split-second thinking in solving problems and then cites occasions when deciding in the blink of an eye can be fatal.

In both books, the authors strengthen their argument, giving readers a deeper understanding of their claims. All strong writers will be quick to make concessions at the service of advancing their key ideas.

Things Writers Do, Part 6: Ask Questions

For successful writers, Habit 5 of Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a given: "Seek first to understand, then to be understood." Writers report on what they witness. They listen. They ask questions. They seek the essence of  a subject, the heart of a character. 

The proverb "He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever" is a foregone conclusion for writers. They do not fear asking the tough question of their subjects and, more important, of themselves. Edward T. Hall dedicated his life to asking what makes one culture different from another, and he comes up with remarkable answers in the books Beyond Culture, The Hidden Dimension, and The Silent Language. Rebecca D. Costa's The Watchman's Rattle identifies trends driving our global culture by asking the difficult questions concerning our mores.  Barack H. Obama's Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope also ask challenging personal and political questions, respectively, and Obama tries to answer them cogently.

Starting out with the toughest question and striving to answer it through interviews, research, and free-writing may not resolve the matter at hand, but it will make for interesting reading.

Things Writers Do, Part 5: Work 24-7

Writers never take off from work. They seek ideas when researching, but they also look for new experiences to write about when vacationing. They spend their waking hours turning a phrase or spinning a yarn, but they record their dreams, which may become part of their next narrative. They dine out just like other people, but they listen to dialogues in restaurants that become a part of their next script. True, they hike, jog, bike, sunbathe, and sail like the rest of us. But they are constantly jotting down their observations: the creatures they see on their hikes, the city sounds they hear on their runs, the engine exhaust they smell during their bike trips, the sand they feel stuck between their fingers on the beach, and the spray of the ocean they taste from their sailboat.

Writing is a reflection of experience, and experience never ends until we do. So writers work 24-7 until they are no longer writers.

Things Writers Do, Part 4: Write Now

"One of these days, I'll write."

"I can't write in these conditions."

"I wish I had more time to write."

"I need to be in the right mood to write."

"How can I write with a full-time job and a family?"

"My partner doesn't give me the chance to write."

Writers do not have the luxury of saying such things. They do not make excuses. They just write. It really is that simple. They write now, always, because writing is what they do, like birds fly, fish swim, and cheetahs run. Like putting one foot in front of another when walking, they write one word after another. After a day, they have a couple hundred words, after a week, a short story or essay, after a month the beginnings of a collection, after a quarter a short book, and after a half-yea a full-length book. 

Things Writers Do, Part 3: See Connections

As creative people, writers see connections among apparently disparate persons, places, and things that most other people don't. Put together women's rights, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, secret lovers, and the Queen of England, and you have Shakespeare in Love. Combine postwar Italy, the work of a projectionist, the puritan Catholic Church, unrequited love, the protective guidance of a father figure, and youthful ambition, and Cinema Paradiso comes to life. Mix the wiretapping surveillance of the Iron Curtain, the redemptive universality of music, the desperation of drug abuse, and the steely resolve of an unconquered soul to make The Lives of Others. The examples are endless.

The next time you see something radiant, frightening, or reassuring, or you meet someone intriguing, abhorrent, or refreshing, try connecting them to your script to solve the problem of a weak character, disjointed plot line, or garbled passage. 

Things Writers Do, Part 2: Read

Writers read in at least seven ways:

• Regularly — They beg, borrow, and steal time to read. They love waiting for their doctor's appointment, standing in line at the bank, commuting on trains and buses, and finding themselves suddenly alone, because they use those moments as opportunities to read.
• Plentifully — Writers can sit still for hours and days getting caught up in narrative turns, poetic leaps, and dramatic flairs of the essays, fiction, poems, or scripts they are reading. They see these long stretches as writing-training sessions.
• Expertly — Writers read with a depth that enables them reach the level of expertise of specialists in a given field. Thus, the medical writer does not need to be doctor but had better know as much to write with authority on the subject. 
• Eclectically — Even though writers are specialists when composing on a specific topic, they do not read in only one field. Rather, the science writer might read westerns, the romance writer military history, and the travel writer social science. They do so to expand their vocabulary and learn different styles.
• Purposefully — Writers read with an agenda. They read to capture key content, to unmask another writer's style, to unravel a puzzle challenging their intellect, to complete a chapter in their book. 
• Critically — Writers are skeptical. They make certain that what they read is reliable. They ensure that it applies to what they themselves are writing about. And when they see the veracity of an opposing viewpoint, they adjust their own paradigm accordingly because they are reporters first, judges second.
• Socially — Writers talk up what they have learned through their reading with fellow writers, authorities, and friends. In this way, they discover alternative viewpoints and new sources for additional reading material.

Things Writers Do, Part 1: Write What They Know

"Write about what you know," said one of my college professors.

What was that supposed to mean? I admitted only to my 20-year-old self that I didn't know much at the time. So what can I write about? That advice was not much of a help for someone who wanted to be a writer.

It turns out I knew more than I thought, and so does anyone who has lived to age 20 and reflected on the comings and goings in their life: the mild trauma of a sudden argument between our parents, siblings, or friends; our helplessness in an unexpected confrontation with a police officer, principal, or little league coach, principal, or police officer; an embarrassing realization that we never had thought of the proper name of a tree, flower, or plant we see every day; our overwhelming sense of impotence when standing on a mountaintop and encountering what a tiny part of the universe we are; the inexplicable rapture that overcomes us when breathing the ocean air; the oneness with humanity that pervades our being when gazing at a crowded terminal, park, or stadium; the fear we felt of a neighborhood bully, or the shame when recalling we ourselves were bullying; the abject despair of losing a dying family member or of saying goodbye to a beloved friend who will leave us for a long while; our laser-like focus on the ceiling tiles to forget the dentist's drilling of our tooth. 

We have plenty to write about because we know a lot.

Am I Supposed to Know What That Means?

A little bit of thoughtfulness goes a long way for business and technical writers. Are you unsure of what some of these terms mean?

• adze (from carpentry)
• anaphylaxis (from medicine)
• capias mittimus (from law)
• consist (from railroad)
• critical path method (from project management)
• metacognition (from education)
• phenotype (from biology)
• recidivism (from corrections)

If you don't know them all, and even if you do, remember to define your technical terms for unfamiliar readers the next time you write.

Tips from Fiction Writers

Whether you are a serious novelist, dramatist, poet, journalist, memoirist, or business writer, you will find the Twenty Writing Tips from Fiction Authors helpful. Suggestions like "Read everything you can lay your hands on" and "Protect the time and space in which you write" are timeless, inspirational, and practical.   

How to Get to My Webinars

Since I often get the question about where my webinars are available online, I have decided to share some of those key places:

• Audit Report Writing by Bank Webinars
• Business Writing for Financial Professionals by Audio Solutionz
• How to Write a Darn Good Email by American Management Association
• How to Write Fast When It's Due Yesterday by American Management Association 
• Technical Writing Essentials by Compliance Global
• Writing High-Impact Executive Summaries by Train HR

Other webinar sites are available for the asking.

What's a MOOC?

Coursera and EdX, premier sites of practical massive open online courses (MOOCs), offer several helpful full-semester writing courses. If you want to sharpen your writing skills conveniently and inexpensively, you can start here:

Coursera

• Getting Started with Essay Writing
• Grammar and Punctuation
• High-Impact Business Writing
• Write Professional Emails in English

EdX

• Academic and Business Writing
• English Composition: Research and Writing

The Courage (or Insanity) of Using Active Voice

Auditors can be in a tricky position when auditing the very people who pay them. We often hear that active voice is better than passive. But which of these sentences would you choose when writing to a client you are auditing?

Active: The CFO directs Accounts Payable to withhold vendor checks until 30 days past the due date.

Passive: Vendor checks are withheld until 30 days past the due date.

Of course, the active version is clearer because it indicates the guilty party, but you might want to choose the more diplomatic passive version in this case—unless you want your check to be withheld until 60 days past the due date. 

Focus Your Purpose, Part 2: Make It One Sentence

Regardless of its length, a business message should have only one purpose. This means we do not want to split our purpose among different sentences. Here is an example of an unfocused purpose:

This document describes the protocol for Procedure X. It also ensures operational safety and efficiency.

The writer seems to believe the messages has a dual purpose, to describe a protocol and to achieve two operational benefits. But the benefits are actually the result of following the protocol. The purpose would have been more focused if he had written one of these sentences:

This protocol for Procedure X ensures operational safety and efficiency.

To ensure operational safety and efficiency, follow this protocol for Procedure X.

Follow this protocol for Procedure X to ensure operational safety and efficiency. 

Building on the previous WORDS ON THE LINE post, the idea is start the message with the purpose, and to assert it in one sentence.  

Focus Your Purpose, Part 1: Start with the Most Important Point

Look at this typical inspection report from a project manager to a contractor:

Our inspection of the construction site detected three performance deficiencies:

• The work area was not secured from public access.
• The workers are not wearing proper personal protective equipment.
• The supervisor was not on site during the work.

Please correct these problems by tomorrow morning. 

When I ask experts in this field to highlight the most important word in the message, they unanimously agree it is correct. Then why not start there:

Please correct three performance deficiencies at the construction site that our inspection detected:

• securing the work area from public access
• requiring workers to wear proper personal protective equipment
• deploying an on-site supervisor during the work

We will reinspect the premises tomorrow morning to ensure your compliance.

I explain that their standard method (the first draft) is perfectly logical—chronological. But the contractor's job is to correct deficiencies, so inspectors should think hierarchically, beginning with the most important point. That's what we mean by getting to the point: starting not what we think, but our reader's think, is the most important point.

Overusing "I"? Think Again

It is recommended that the compressor be replaced for production to be increased and maintenance reduced.

That kind of sentence is a good example of bad writing: 4 passive verbs (is recommended, be replaced, to be increased, and reduced) in 16 words where an active voice sentence of 10 words will do: 

We recommend compressor replacement to increase production and reduce maintenance.

This blog has reflected plenty on voice: in a ten-part series, in a general discussion of style, and in a post about plain language, so I won't repeat those points here, other than to say active is usually more clear, concise, and fluent than passive. 

Technical writers often object to this point, arguing that they need to use passive voice to avoid using personal pronouns like I, we, you, he, and she, and they. 

I will counter this lame excuse by recommending they rewrite the sentence in one of these two ways:

1. Quality Assurance recommends compressor replacement to increase production and reduce maintenance.
2. Replacing the compressor will increase production and reduce maintenance.  

The 11-word first draft credits the group making the recommendation without drawing attention to one individual; the 9-word second draft completely depersonalizes the message while still making the point. Both sentences use active voice.

So, yes, consider whether you're overusing personal pronouns, but don't necessarily revert to passive voice.

700th Post for WORDS ON THE LINE: Thank you, Mr. Edison

On January 4, 2005, I posted my first blog entry. Now, 700 posts and 4,268 days later, WORDS ON THE LINE continues as a resource for effective writing at home, school, or work. 

After 11-plus years of reporting new ideas while maintaining a writing consulting business, developing my own creative work, and loving my family, I must agree with the Thomas Edison aphorism, "Genius is 1 percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration." I do not pretend that this blog is a work of genius, but I do say that it's all about the work. 

Three other Edison quotes come to mind:

• "We don't know a millionth of 1 percent about anything." True, and the quicker we believe that, the harder we will work.
• "Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits." Indeed, don't just sit there; keep learning and applying what you've learned. The benefits will surely follow.
• "I never did a day's work in my life; it was all fun." With a mindset that writing is playing with words, writers will never work a day in their life. I admit I struggle with writing, but it's a struggle I enjoy.

Concept Mapping: Another Way to Get Started

In an earlier post, I mentioned mind mapping as a way to jumpstart the writing process. A related technique is the concept map, a technique for visualizing the relationship among concepts. Writers can use it as means of structuring the ideas of their message.

When I ask students to use either a mind map or a concept map as a planning technique for a writing assignment, they use one of three things: a mind map, a concept map, or a hybrid of both. So whatever works for you, use or adapt the technique to generate ideas for your next complicated writing project.

Quotable and Inspirational Einstein

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was, among many other things, a master of the aphorism. Here are three of them that hold true for writers. 

• "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Is it any wonder that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein by age 20, and Carson McCullers wrote The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by 23? They could not have been so full of wisdom by their age, but they were surely full of imagination. Writers need to start from this premise.  
• "Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them." Writers need to know what they don't know and then get it, if they are to expand to points of reference, depth of insight, and command of language.
• "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." Pete Rose had more base hits than anyone in baseball history, but he also made more outs. Thomas Edison failed in inventing electric light more than a hundred times before he succeeded. Writers need this reminder: create fearless of failing, transform those failures into successes, and expect failures again. At least you're trying. Enjoy the experience.  

One Quote,Two Tips from Ruskin

English critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) once wrote, "Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them." Ruskin renders two suggestions: make every word count and keep it simple--great advice from a prolific writer who speaks from experience.

Tips for Aspiring Writers

Here are some quotes from great writers collected by Thought Catalog that will either make aspiring writers laugh or crush their spirit. My favorites are from Paul Theroux ("My advice to any young person who wants to write is: leave home"), Harper Lee ("I would advise anyone who aspires to writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide"), W. Somerset Maugham ("There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one know what they are"), and the best, Stephen King ("If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time--or the tools--to write").

Plain Language a Standard NYC Government Course

I am honored to have designed and delivered for the City of New York a Writing on Plain Language workshop, which is now available to all City government agencies. 

In past WORDS ON THE LINE posts, I discussed Plain Language principles at length: the need, paragraph focus, heading and list logic, thoughtful transitions, managing runaway sentences and clipped sentences, active voice, parallel structure, and word choice. So it's great to know that an organization as large as the New York Citywide Training Center  has moved ahead with my program. 

The initial response from the hundreds of employees who have taken Writing in Plain Language has been exceptional. The highly customized nature of the course and its focus on individualized feedback have made it the most popular writing course for the City.

Try Mind Mapping

I recommend mind mapping not because I often use this planning technique. In fact, when generating content for my drafts, I tend to just create vertical lists on my computer by first brainstorming ideas quickly and then organizing them into manageable groups, which eventually become my paragraphs or headings. But when I introduce mind mapping to my students, many of them get playful with process, inventing their adaptations, feverishly capturing thoughts bursting from their fertile brains, and rapidly jumping into their drafts with gusto.

Many videos describing and illustrating mind mapping are available on YouTube. (Click on the image to view one.) See if this method works for you the next time you find yourself stuck on an important writing assignment.

Reading Scripts to Achieve Clarity

Reading plays is an excellent way to get a feel for the dialogue of life in general, and the questions of businesspeople  in particular. Few people read plays, yet we write at work based on imagined dialogues with our readers.

Imagine opening an internal proposal to your manager with this sentence: 

Splitting the Northeast Region into two sales territories will double our coverage, leading to 25% additional revenue after the first year.

You are assuming the following dialogue:

Manager: What do you want?

You: We should split the Northeast Region into two sales territories.

Manager: Why?

Writer: It would double our coverage. 

Manager: What would that do?

Writer: We would increase revenue by 25 percent after the first year.

Reading dramatic pieces not only entertains, it also gives insight into how people react, reply, retract, and repeat. Read some plays with this thought in mind and see how your ear for your audience improves.

The To and the Do, or the Do and the To?

A helpful tip I give to people in my writing classes is to start proposals or time-sensitive requests with a sentence that includes a to and a do. The to is the reader benefit; the do is the writer expectation.

Here are some examples of the to and the do:

1. To improve our chances of winning the account (to), please include an analysis of options in the proposal (do).
2. We can reduce rental costs, increase our labor pool, and facilitate the production process (to) by relocating the plant to Memphis (do).
3. I recommend including an analysis of options in the proposal (do) to improve our chances of winning the account (to). 
4. Relocating the plant to Memphis (do) will reduce rental costs, increase our labor pool, and facilitate the production process (to).

Examples 1 and 2 appear in the order of to and do, a more deferential style; Examples 3 and 4 are in the order of do and to, a more assertive style. Choosing the right approach depends on the situation and your relationship with the readers.

Template for Meeting Summaries

In an earlier Words on the Line post, I noted why meeting summaries are so challenging to many employees who need to write them. For this reason, I provide a template to jumpstart the composition process. Keep in mind that this template works well for the results-driven business world better than it does for the process-driven government style, which uses the Robert's Rules of Order.  

BOOK BRIEF: "Dialogue: Rediscover the Transforming Power of Conversation" by Linda Ellinor and Glenna Gerard

Linda Ellinor and Glenna Gerard dedicate much of their book to the applications of Dialogue. As consultants on Dialogue theory, they begin with an actual transcript of a dialogue among several experts on the subject, which they arranged not only to ground the reader on the principles of Dialogue, but also to model how an actual dialogue might unfold. The authors’ in-depth focus on the necessity of appreciating silence and releasing certainty for a successful dialogue offers revelatory potential to these ideas.

Those searching for literary relationships to Dialogue need look no further than Dialogue: Rediscover the Transforming Power of Conversation. Poetry is generously scattered throughout the pages, and apt quotes abound from philosophers like Buber, poets like Rilke, and painters like Matisse.

Most valuable are the authors’ strategies for bringing value to Dialogue, complementing Daniel Yankelovich’s strategies for successful Dialogue. Most enjoyable is the enthusiasm that the authors infuse in their personal encounters with people in Dialogue. And most appreciated is the timeless advice they provide for those stifled in their attempts at Dialogue: "When you get stuck and frustrated, there are three keys to learning and moving beyond: 1. the willingness to stick around; 2. suspending judgment; and 3. refocusing attention to engage at a different level."

BOOK BRIEF: "The Magic of Dialogue: Transforming Conflict into Cooperation" by Daniel Yankelovich

Daniel Yankelovich looks at Dialogue from the perspective of a political scientist and sociologist. The book’s subtitle points to Yankelovich’s passion for understanding the world order through public opinion. (He is a founder and president of Public Agenda, a leading American public policy research organization.) He is concerned mainly with what David Bohm refers to as the collective dimension of the human being, and he unfolds it by combining his penchant for distinguishing between popular belief and empirical data with an optimistic vision of society at large:

The public, I have learned over the years, forms its judgments mainly through interactions with other people, through dialogues and discussion.  People weigh what they hear from other against their own convictions.  They compare notes with one another, they assess the views of others in terms of what makes sense to them, and, above all, they consult their feelings and their values.  The public doesn’t distinguish sharply between facts and values, as journalists and social scientists do.

Yankelovich draws his illustrations from foreign and domestic political affairs with a watchful eye on three critical moments of Dialogue: an acceptance of equality between the parties, an attempt at listening with empathy, and a willingness to surface any assumptions. Furthermore, he reinforces William Isaacs’ distinction between debate and dialogue by underscoring debate’s combative nature and dialogue’s collaborative spirit. 

Among the highlights of this highly readable volume are sections which form the core a cogent instruction manual for Dialogue: The 15 strategies of successful dialogues, which include tips for gaining and maintaining trust and for clarifying communication barriers, and the 10 potholes of the mind, which identify egocentric, prejudicial, or unfocused behaviors that negatively affect Dialogue.

BOOK BRIEF: "Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together" by William Isaacs

In Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together, William Isaacs extends Dialogue theory to its practical applications. Identifying pathologies of thought (abstraction, idolatry, certainty, and violence), Isaacs unearths counterbalancing principles of Dialogue (participation, coherence, awareness, and unfolding) and their corresponding practices (listening, respecting, suspending, and voicing). Like his mentor David Bohm, Isaacs carefully defines key terms and outdoes the master when reaching into his seemingly endless reserve of rich illustrations from history, popular culture, other cultures, literature, music, philosophy, management, and organized labor to sharpen his focus on the clear distinction between Dialogue and other forms of human communication.

Isaacs also freely draws parallels with other ideas, such as David Kantor’s four-player system (mover, follower, opposer, and bystander), to press a case for the value of each personality type in the communication continuum. His new capacities for behavior diagrams crystallize the roles of each player in Dialogue, and his prose elaborates on each player’s intents and potential communication shortcomings.

To Isaacs’s credit, he never shies from admitting that attempts at Dialogue can lead to painfully protracted and frustrating impasses. However, he depicts the rewards of communication breakthroughs as virtual miracles:

Hours go by and it seems only minutes have lapsed.  It is very difficult to interrupt dialogues that are in space when the pressure of kronos (real time) arises.

That kind of writing will sell readers on trying to experience Dialogue for themselves. Isaacs’s accessible style makes for the perfect companion piece to Bohm's On Dialogue. In fact, his exhaustive associations between theory and technique render Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together the ultimate handbook on the subject.

BOOK BRIEF: "On Dialogue" by David Bohm

David Bohm’s legacy crosses the worlds of science and language. His championing of a causal interpretation of quantum physics led to lengthy conversations with Einstein, but it won him little respect among most scientists, who preferred the orthodox indeterminate approach espoused by Niels Bohring and Werner Heisenberg, the Copenhagen School theorists (and subjects of Michael Frayn’s Tony Award-winning play Copenhagen). In the early 1950s, Bohm stood fast against Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Americanism inquiries, which seriously damaged his professional standing in the United States and caused him to live and work abroad until his retirement in 1987 and his death five years later.

Perhaps it was his insistence on seeing order in the universe or his deep principles in the face of McCarthyism that inspired Bohm to fashion his paradigm about the implicate order and undivided wholeness, through which he cogitates with remarkable lucidity about humanity’s transcendence beyond individual and collective domains to an immersion in a cosmic dimension. This unique fusion of science and society resides at the center of Dialogue, and Bohm devotes substantial space to it in On Dialogue, a slim and engaging treatise.

Dialogue is unlike discussion or debate, where demonstrating one’s acumen, outwitting an adversary, or winning a political advantage is paramount. It requires a different sort of reflection that strikes at the heart of self-awareness and empathetic discourse. As Bohm observes,

Thought should be able to perceive its own movement, be aware of its own movement. In the processes of thought, there should be the awareness of that movement, of the intention to think, and of the result which that thinking produces.

A seminal manifesto on communication breakthroughs, Bohm's book provides just the theoretical grounding that a Dialogue neophyte would need to venture into this provocative terrain of how we mean—a question general semanticists pose assiduously.

BOOK BRIEF: "The Essential Pinter: Selections from the Work of Harold Pinter"

I remember reading one of my favorite writers, Harold Pinter, on the eve of my wedding at age 22. As tomorrow marks my fortieth wedding anniversary, I remain struck by how Pinter's method and themes, if anyone has ever adequately described them, reflected my life and mindset then, and still does. The ideas he expresses have always been rooted in my pathos, and they surface for the first time when his characters utter them.

Forty years ago today, I was living in a 500-square-foot, one-bedroom basement apartment in the Bronx, just a four-block walk from the noisy 180th Street train station, whose tracks ran behind a high concrete wall topped with barbed wire to the noisy 180th Street train station. In one semester, I would graduate with a B.A. in English from the City University of New York. My earnings as a part-time taxicab driver and homework tutor for a social services agency were not much more than $100 a week, which was not bad considering my rent was only $100 a month and the subway was 50 cents a ride. But my prospects of becoming a high school English teacher were dimming at a time when the New York City Board of Education was not hiring because of budget problems. The new responsibilities of becoming a husband, college graduate, and licensed teacher were weighing on me.

Yet without any good reason, I thought somehow everything would turn out all right. Even back then I knew that life was inexplicable. Just six years earlier, at 16, my ambitions as a denizen of the James Monroe housing projects were like those of many of my friends: to drop out of high school, find a job for six months, and figure out a way to get fired so that I could collect unemployment. I certainly had no idea that I would find a job with a nonprofit organization, where I would stay for 19 years before running my own communication consulting business for the past 20 years.

I saw my first Harold Pinter play at the Classic Stage Company's 1973 production of The Homecoming. I was 19, in my second year of college, liberated by having changed majors from business to English. I believed that since New York City was in its worst fiscal crisis ever, I had nothing to lose by focusing on what I loved. Sure I might not find a job right away. But why chase after a career I would later regret?

What I saw on stage that evening hypnotized me. I had no idea what these characters were talking about, but I knew every word was meaningful. Without seeing any overt act of violence or hearing one subversive statement, I was certain I had witnessed the most disturbing sort of subversive violence, the kind we either don't recognize or dare not acknowledge as violence. Without completely understanding the dialogue, I believed that the actors' words could not be more real. I walked away from that theatrical experience transcendent, realizing the limitless potential of drama to depict the human condition. I have measured every other play I've seen since The Homecoming against that standard.

Is this a review of Pinter's work? You bet. I cannot separate the very details of my life from The Caretaker, The Homecoming, Old Times, No Man's Land, Betrayal, Family Voices, Moonlight, and many of Pinter's other plays and sketches. His dramas unfold as my life has, does, and likely will.  

The Essential Pinter: Selections from the Work of Harold Pinter offers a good starting point if for those new to this playwright's playwright. It includes a sufficient sampling of his plays to make readers want to discover more of them. The poetry does not reach the same level as the drama, but this volume also includes Pinter's defiant 2005 Nobel Prize controversial and underappreciated acceptance speech.

BOOK BRIEF: James Baldwin's Collected and Uncollected Essays

I would recommend any nonfiction work of James Baldwin. He is masterful in his reasoning and elegant, and at times surprisingly abrupt, in his prose. Years ago when Baldwin was still alive, I read his magnum opus, The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948-1985, marveling at how adept he was whether reflecting on race, jazz, language, politics, sexuality, literature, economics, or urban life.

The Library of America edition, pictured below, collects that volume along with nine more essays. The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings includes speeches, letters, and book reviews, among other pieces, which did not appear in Baldwin's earlier books. 

Collectively these books offer a deep look into the American psyche during Baldwin's half-century of remarkable composition, a key examination of a writer's unique style, and a powerful testament to his enduring influence on world literature.