Welcome to the Virtual Classroom

This presentation looks at the ECONOMY OF WORDS

and the importance of taking out all the words that do not move your story

forward

WORDS …

Less is More

To become a good writer it is important to learn the

art of word economy.

Train yourself to get rid of ALL unnecessary words in EVERY piece your write.

My writing mentor was Denis Butler; he received the Australian Journalist of the Year award on a number of occasions. Early in my training he told me I should never forget this piece of advice: ‘Every time you write, think of yourself as a pauper, sending a telegram to an idiot.’

A pauper sending an email from and Internet Café would make

more sense to younger students who may not know what a telegram is.

It’s great advice.

Every time you write a piece, go over it at least three times and take out every word that is not needed.

You may have to rearrange the words a little, but you’ll find word-economy makes for powerful writing.

If you have used a word like very to describe something,

i.e., very hot, very wet, very tired.

YOU’RE NOT USING THE RIGHT WORD.

Find ONE WORD to describe the situation, emotion, event.

For example:

Very hot: sweltering - scorching – roasting – baking – blistering - scalding - broiling

Very wet: soaked – sodden – saturated - sopping

Very tired: exhausted – shattered - fatigued – bushed - pooped

USE A GOOD Thesaurus

CRAFT DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY # 1

Select ONE of the sentences below and write a FIVE paragraph story using the sentence as the opening statement.

The noise from the crowd was deafening …

Julie tried to hide her smile …

The train pulled away from the platform …

When you’ve written the piece, please move to the next slide.

Now go through what you have written and take out EVERY word you don’t need.

Find one word to describe many words.

REWRITE THE PIECE AGAIN

Study it and take out more unnecessary words.

Don’t be afraid to rearrange the words to place them in a different position in the sentence.

THAT is often an offender

Most people use THAT far too often in their writing.

Try to remove THAT in as many places as possible.

Now re-examine your work.

Good writing has: feeling, soul, emotion, colour, smell, weight, height.

Examine the words you’ve chosen and ask yourself:

Can you FEEL THEM?

Do they CONVEY EMOTION?

Did you get to the ESSENCE or SOUL of the things your writing about?

Did you convey the COLOUR, SMELL or ATMOSPHERE you wantthe reader to be immersed in?

Replace all the boring words with powerful, emotive ones

Question. What is a writer’s job?

Answer. It is to take single words, link them, and breathe new life into them.

Writer’s take words like:

• Transform

• Table

• Cedar

• Breathtaking

• Artwork

To weave a rich and vibrant tapestry.

CRAFT DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY # 2

Use the five bullet point words (typed in violet) in the previous slide and write one short sentence that includes each of the five words listed.

Allow yourself seven minutes (7) to complete this exercise.

GENERAL INFORMATIONThere are many career opportunities for good creative writers in the COMMERCIAL SECTOR.

Creative writers are employed to author the following:

In-House Journals/MagazinesPromotional & Marketing MaterialWeb Site and Intranet text pagesNewslettersTechnical documents and manualsStandard Operating Procedures (SOPs)Speech WritingMovie/Video Narration/ScriptsAdvertising/VoiceoversSubmissions and ProposalsFinancial Reports and Company Reports Media Releases.

Other Creative Writing opportunities:

NovelsShort StoriesCommunity NewspapersNon-Profit Newsletters and JournalsSpeech WritingMovie – Video Narration/ScriptsCollege/University Essay, Reports and Theses Clubs/Associations MaterialPlays

This is not intended to be a definitive list. It is simply to allow you to explore and consider these and other writing opportunities.

CRAFT DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY # 3

From the creative writing opportunities listed in the previous slides, select one (1).

Consider the writing style and key factors that would be required to write effectively for the area you have selected.

For Example, you may have chosen Promotional and Marketing material.

The key ingredients for this type of writing would include:

Powerful, single words to grab attention and engage the reader.

Short, punchy pieces, not long descriptive prose.

When you have analysed the writing style and key factors, please email them to me. Bullet points are fine.

Well that’s it for today!

See you soon,

Suzanne