Tuesday Tidbit: “I’ve failed dreadfully if you have to read a sentence twice to figure out what I meant.”

 

Continuing with your need to strive for clarity in your writing. . . .

 

After you’ve set aside your rough draft for a while, read it with fresh eyes, checking for ways to make your wording perfectly clear for readers.

 

One of your most important goals

is communicating effectively with your readers.

 

Here’s one way to do that:

Aim your writing at an eighth-grade audience.

 

You might be asking: “What?!?”

 

You read that correctly.

 

Years ago, when I studied journalism, instructors taught us to aim our writing at eighth graders—that is, to write in a way eighth-grade students could easily understand.

Recently I saw the same advice so it must still be the best practice.

 

What’s true for journalists is true for memoirists: Aim at an eighth-grade audience.

 

Ken Follett, Welsh author, says his goal is to make his prose “utterly easy to understand.” He calls it “transparent prose.”

 

“I’ve failed dreadfully,” Follet says, “if you have to read a sentence twice to figure out what I meant.”

 

You know what Follett means.

You have had the unpleasant experience

of reading a sentence or a paragraph

two or three times

before you could figure out the writer’s message.

Don’t be that kind of writer!

 

Revise your sentences and paragraphs

and chapters until they are

“utterly easy to understand.”

 

And remember,

“revision is not punishment”

(Donald Murray)

 

There you have it:

your Tuesday Tidbit.

 

Writer’s block? No problem. You can still work on your memoir.

 

Writer’s block: You know how to write. You want to write. But for some reason, you can’t write.

 

Take heart. Everyone gets stuck from time to time. Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charlie Schultz, and Mark Twain struggled with writer’s block, too.

 

If “writer’s block” describes you today, don’t despair!

 

I have good news for you:

 

Writer’s block is temporary.

 

And here’s more good news: You can still make progress on your memoir.

 

This is your opportunity to spiff up your already-written segments, those chapters still in rough draft form, those beautiful stories that will someday—soon, we hope!—be compiled as your memoir.

 

By “spiff up” I mean to tinker, to rearrange, to polish—to revise.

 

“Revision is not punishment,” says veteran writer Donald M.Murray in The Craft of Revision.

 

“Writing evolves from a sequence of drafts,” Murray says. “Scientists . . . experiment . . . . Actors and musicians rehearse. Retailers test markets, politicians take polls, manufacturers try pilot runs. They all revise, and so do writers. Writing is rewriting.”

 

Professional writers know the benefits of revision.

 

So . . . Be like the pros: If you’re stuck with writer’s block, use this time to revise the chapters you’ve already written.

 

Revision, Murray says, is “re-seeing the entire piece of writing.” That’s so important.

 

This is your opportunity to re-see what you’ve written. Re-seeing will show you where, specifically, to revise.

 

Revision involves checking punctuation, grammar, spelling, diction (word choice), sentence length, rhythm, conciseness, organizing, and so on. I suggest you consider each separately as you evaluate your rough draft.  

 

If you’re stuck in writer’s block,

this is a perfect time to revise because

distance and time are a writer’s friends:

They do wonders for objectivity.

The fresher the story is in your memory,

the harder it is to catch things you need to change.

 

Today, let’s consider clarity.

 

“Clarity depends . . . on your ability to put information together so that readers know at every point where they are, where they’ve been, and where they seem to be going,” writes Peter P. Jacobi.

 

“When we read, our minds work in linear fashion. We cannot grasp jumps and jerks or even the sudden shifts of scene. . . .” Jacobi continues. “We [readers] have to be moved carefully, smoothly, through the [story].”

 

Donald Murray encourages a writer

to read a rough draft the first time

as the maker of that piece,

and then read it again as a stranger—

as someone reading the piece for the first time.

Good advice, Don!

 

So, put yourself in your readers’ shoes. Does your vignette or chapter make sense, or does it cause confusion?

 

Does your story have “jumps and jerks or . . . sudden shifts of scene”?

 

Look for gaps:

Did you leave out information

readers need to know?

If so, they’ll have trouble grasping

your story’s message.

 

Remember, it’s not in your story

until it’s in black and white on your page.

 

Strive for clarity.

 

Also remember: “Revision is not punishment.”

 

Enjoy making your revisions!