Imagine I’m a ‘tough-as-nails” newpaper editor from the olden days. Which ones? The fifthirourties. For maximum impact, read the following in a fast-talking, no-nonsense voice. This is how I heard it in my voice as I told myself this morning.
Listen, kid. You gotta listen to me on this. Your writing’s not bad. You know how to tell a story, but listen. You’ve got poor choice sometimes. No, no, don’t get offended. Deadlines are deadlines, and you take what you can get. But you’re never going to win the Pulitzer until you figure out that whatever you’re writing about, it has to hit you right in the guts. Knock the wind out of the reader. It’s gotta have their stomach twisting and turning in sympathy. You grab them by the guts with your first line and you don’t let go until you’re through with them. The human condition’s all about drama and conflict. Conflict and drama. All our damn lives are hard, and one of the precious few things in life that makes it easier is knowing somewhere, some poor bastard has it worse than you. Remember the old motto: if it bleeds, it leads.
I’m a cerebral person. I avoid emotional and social drama and conflict like the plague. The problem is, my personal avoidance of it turns up in my work. I have to stop that right now. So my the fast-talking newspaper editor-in-my-head is going to be giving me this speech every day until it becomes second nature.
Just thought I would share that with some of you in case you need it too.
Tags: Writing Advice
