WRITING SPECIAL..... All Great Writing Has One Thing in Common

All Great Writing Has One Thing in Common

Good writing is hard to define. As a consultant to publishers, I know that as well as anyone does. It seems as if I'm always in the middle of one debate or another about whether some particular piece of writing is good, bad, or indifferent.

But although there are some disagreements here and there about whether a certain article or book or sales letter (or writer, for that matter) is good, there is almost never disagreement among experienced people when a piece is top-notch.

So that means something - that the best writing has some sort of unifying quality.

But what is that quality? That's the question.

Figure that out and you have a way of understanding quality, a tool to explain it to others, and just possibly a way to learn the skill of writing faster and more easily.

I've been trying to answer the question for at least 20 years. For a long time, I had nothing. I came up with definitions that would do a good job explaining one sort of good writing but fail miserably to explain another. Then, about a year ago, I had a revelation. Good writing is good thinking with everything else - all the ornamentation - cut off.

I am very happy with that definition. It pretty much explains and clarifies just about every sort of non-fiction writing I can think of. I've used it 100 times since then to analyse the writing of others... and to figure out what was sometimes wrong with my own writing.

If good writing is good thinking unembellished, the trick to writing well is two-fold:

1. Don't start writing until you have one good thought.

2. After you've written it down, edit the hell out of it. Get rid of every sentence, phrase, and word that is not necessary. This is, if I say so myself, excellent advice. But it begs the question: What is good thinking?

I don't have a great answer for that yet, but I can say this. When I say that good writing is good thinking, I am speaking relatively. For an idea to have power...for it to enlighten or disturb or invigorate or persuade...it has to have power in the minds of those reading it.

An idea that cannot be understood or appreciated by readers won't seem 'good' to them. In fact, it will seem like a waste of time.

I'm making the relativistic argument - in this case, that 'good' is relative. If you believe that writing is a form of communication, you must also believe that communication is only effective when the idea conveyed is received. If you believe that, you must accept this relativistic notion.

Still with me? Good. This gets us to a place where we can understand how there can be many sorts of good writing - some high-brow and sophisticated and some simple, even rudely so.

In other words, it doesn't matter what you want to write about - astronomy or astrology, fine art or cartoons, nuclear physics or sports cars - your writing can be good so long as you give your readers good ideas about the subject matter.

So... how do you come up with good ideas?

First, you have to do what I suggested above - you have to spend time thinking. You can't expect that the great ideas will start flowing the moment you sit down at the computer. They are not so easily captured.

I've been thinking about the process...and also wondering why so much of my writing ends up being such drivel...and I haven't been able to come up with anything brilliant. But the other day, BB (my partner) said something in a memo that was a breakthrough.

We were talking about what was wrong with the writing in several publications we have in England. By most standards, it seems "good" - the expression and style are fine and even the ideas are OK (ordinary but not "bad"), but, overall, the quality is mediocre. We had made suggestions about improving it in the past, and all our suggestions were dutifully observed. Yet, the bottom-line quality of the publications had not improved. There was something deeper than anything we'd yet been able to describe that was still wrong here. And, finally, BB figured out what it was.

In a memo about a writer we both admire, he said, "What I like best about his writing is how unique his ideas are. His view of how things work in the world is very different from mine. But his view is authentic...and that's why I like it.

BB had struck gold, I thought. Authenticity is the key. Good writing must not only involve good ideas but also be authentic.

This is what gives it its relative value - it doesn't matter what the subject is so long as the ideas and the expression of those ideas are authentic...that they honestly and truthfully reflect the thoughts and feelings of the writer...and that they are appropriate to the people who read them.

But there's more. Writing is communication. And communication involves two parties. Writing begins with the writer. It's his job to develop exciting and useful ideas. But if those ideas that cannot be understood or believed then it won't seem "good" to his readers. In fact, reading them will seem like a waste of time.

You can't be a good writer without providing enough evidence to convince your readers that your ideas are correct. And yet you can get a lot of that work done by having authority and confidence in your voice.

So what is good writing? Here is the new and improved definition:

Good writing is the clear expression of exciting and useful ideas supported by persuasive evidence and presented in an authentic voice.

So how do you apply this definition to your writing?

Don't start writing until you have at least one good thought.

Write that thought down as simply as possible.

Support with as much detail as it warrants.

 Write sincerely, which is to say with the best interests of your reader at heart.

My income is based almost entirely on writing. And it has given me a very rich life - rich in every sense of the word. It can do the same for you.

I spend half of my working time coaching copywriters on how to write better marketing copy. I spend the other half writing memos.

The purpose of most of my memos is to persuade my clients to make business and marketing decisions that will make them more profitable. If I fail to persuade them, my ideas don't get tested. If they don't get tested, I can't help them make money. If I can't help them make money, they will stop paying me. To date, I have never lost a client. (Knock on wood.) I attribute my track record to the effectiveness of my memos.

This lesson in good writing applies to just about every type of writing there is, and whether you want to write for yourself, your readers, or clients this will help you. 

By Mark Ford

COMON SENSE LIVING