The "Old-is-New" for Inspired Writing

A new writing instructor asked me for advice on what she could do to motivate her students to write engaging prose. Now there’s a simple question that gets an endless answer! Numerous techniques are available, so when I teach rhetorical writing I use specific prompts based on student interest, aptitude, and experience. I especially like using the old-is-new. It’s a device that many successful creative writers play, unconsciously or not, when spinning amazing tales that capture their readers’ hearts and imaginations.

When playing the old-is-new, writers look for a fresh detail about someone, someplace, or something familiar to them. Look at a photograph that has hung on a wall in your house for years, searching for a feature you haven’t noticed before. Maybe you never paid attention to what the person in the picture is wearing, or the budding oak tree, white picket fence, or sailboat in the background. Maybe you can recall an event from local or world history that was occurring around that time to make the picture more significant. When I recently saw a picture of myself as a ten-year-old boy in the peaceful country of Malta, I was struck by how at that very moment in history race riots were occurring throughout the United States. Only a month after that moment, Malta officially gained its independence from Great Britain after years of nonviolent negotiations. What made one people protest violently and another protest peacefully? Were the American protestors always violent and the Maltese protestors always peaceful? What were the similarities and differences between the two groups as well as the historical and political situations in which they found themselves? There’s something of a story in that.

The old-is-new could also lead the writers in an entirely different direction. Perhaps they can try doing something for the first time which has been accessible to them for as long as they can remember. Examples for me would include going to a professional football game, taking a tango lesson at the dance studio down the block, or walking through Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Maybe writers looking for new ideas can meet with someone whom they know by name but have never had personal company with. In my case, those folks would be the neighbors three doors down who for more than ten years have always exchanged hellos with me but nothing else. Or I could strike a conversation with the man in the newspaper kiosk on the corner of 48th Street and Broadway. Again, the goal is to uncover items of interest that you previously did not know, things that prove a common bond with, or a deep divergence from, your subject.

There are countless other examples of old-is-new. If it inspires writing by finding connections between yourself and the world in which you interact, or even between two contrasting facets of yourself, like your placid and aggressive sides, you’ll be on to something special as you write your essay.

“How to Write Fast” Webcast Now Online

My webcast, How to Write Fast When It’s Due Yesterday, is now available for viewing free of charge at the American Management Association’s (AMA) website (www.amanet.org/editorial/webcast/2008/how-to-write-fast.htm). It discusses problems that prevent writing efficiency and provides tips on making writing less painful and more proactive.

This is my second webcast at AMA. The first, How to Write a Darn Good E-mail, can be seen here: www.amanet.org/editorial/webcast/2006/darn-good-email.htm.

Both of these hour-long programs have been viewed by thousands of corporate employees across the country. They're definitely worth a peek.

New ESL Course Designed for AMA

Be on the lookout for the American Management Association’s (AMA) new course, Business Writing for the Nonnative English Speaker. I designed this three-day program for AMA, an international training organization, relying on my years of experience in delivering my own English-as-a-Second-Language instruction for engineering, scientific, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, and financial firms. The course provides model documents, a broad range of writing topics, plenty of intensive writing practice opportunities, and ample tome to receive individual feedback. I will lead the first two sessions, in San Francisco, January 12-14, and New York, February 2-4. You may register for this course directly at the AMA website. Here’s the link: www.amanet.org/seminars/seminar.cfm?baseSemNo=2266.

The Comic Language Genius of Victor Borge

I can’t help it: I still laugh whenever I hear Victor Borge’s comedic monologues, phonetic punctuation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4qii8S3gw) and inflationary language (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY6kElOYcd8&feature=relatedroutine). How did this guy think up this stuff! Borge (1909-2000), was a brilliantly accomplished Danish classical pianist who dedicated his career to clean, uproarious humor. If you need more than a laugh, check out these monologues. If the links don't work, search "phonetic punctuation" and "inflationary language."

And the Answer Is … Whatever You Say, Boss!

“If I don’t I tell you how to decorate your house, then don’t tell me how to decorate mine!” That statement is appropriate when considering certain “rules” of writing style. A lot of those rules are determined entirely by the writer’s preference, not some grammatical law written in stone. In the corporate world, this preference is often referred to as “house style.” Here are four examples.

1. The serial comma. Although I use the use the comma before and in a series (the first example), it is optional.

I have worked for federal, state, and city agencies.
I have worked for federal, state and city agencies.

2. The superfluous that. Either of the examples below is acceptable, as both are clear. If you were running out of space, I suppose the second would be preferable.

The president said that she would make a good leader.
The president said she would make a good leader.

3. Expressing numbers both ways. As much as this practice bothers me, why argue this minor issue if it’s the house rule? There are many more points worth the fight than this one. I prefer the first example below, but not all of my clients do.

The copper tubing has 12-millimeter holes at 2-meter intervals.
The copper tubing has 12 (twelve)-millimeter holes at 2 (two)-meter intervals.

4. Punctuating a salutation. The standard remains the colon; however, some companies use the comma and others nothing at all. You can find examples of all three below in different organizations.

Dear Mr. Rodriguez:
Dear Mr. Rodriguez,
Dear Mr. Rodriguez

The main thing to remember about house style is this: Give the bosses whatever they ask for since these are such minor matters. Save your debates for the bigger issues, such as directness of style, completeness of content, and organization of ideas.

Go Grammar Now!

Here’s a terrific resource for basic and intermediate users of English: http://www.grammarnow.com/. The website makes for an excellent gateway to other resources on writing style, research papers, grammar and usage, proofreading, English as a Second Language, and a host of other helpful references. Don’t be put off by the kindergartenish look of the website; if you explore it, you’re bound to learn something!

100 Best First Sentences from Novels

I conclude my obsessive listmania series with a favorite: The American Book Review’s 100 Best First Lines from Novels (http://americanbookreview.org/100BestLines.asp).

The first, predictably, is from Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick: Call me Ishmael. My all-time favorite, from Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, did not make the list: They're out there.

Among my all-time bests from the list are these:

• #8: It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. – George Orwell, 1984
• #10: I am an invisible man. – Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
• #12: You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter. – Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• #15: The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new. – Samuel Beckett, Murphy
• #16: If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. – J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
• #28: Mother died today. Albert Camus, The Stranger, translated by Stuart Gilbert
• #31: I am a sick man … I am a spiteful man. – Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground, translated by Michael R. Katz
• #48: He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. – Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
• #94: In the town, there were two mutes and they were always together. – Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
• #100: The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting. – Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage

Reading those sentences makes me want to reread those books! Remember: Read to write, when you can’t write read, and read like a writer!