Write like Tom Strini!

Impress your friends and confound your enemies with the power of the written word!

It’s easy and it’s fun. Simply absorb the theory and practice in the handy guide that follows.

A Brief and Practical Theory of Writing
By Tom Strini
ThirdCoast Digest Culture Desk

Goal

This theory seeks full engagement of the reader.

Strategic Principles

Clarity, economy, vividness and relevance.

1. Active voice serves vividness by energizing verbs and by packing more meaning into fewer words – thus, it also serves economy.

2. Place galvanizing ideas at the top of the story, to serve vividness, organization and relevance. Such placement tips the reader early as to what’s important, and it gives the writer a chance to create a flow of paragraphs that link and accumulate meaning.

3. Eliminate unnecessary words to serve relevance, economy and vividness.

4. Write freely and quickly, edit ruthlessly. This approach frees the writer from the paralyzing effect of the blank page. Treat the writing as a laboratory; let it guide your research, not merely record it.

5. Serve relevance by focusing on the subject, not your feelings about it. Self-expression pales in importance next to clear communication.

6. Keep the reader in mind while editing. Will someone who is not you understand what you’re saying? Could someone else care about what you have to say? Make them get it; make them care.

Strini, polishing copy

7. Read aloud. Your ear for English can guide your writing. Listen for false notes. Your writing should sound like you at your most honest and lucid, but without the ordinary sloppiness of speech. Listen musically; writing has rhythm, speed and timbre. Control these musical qualities.

That’s it, everything I know about writing. Feel free to pass it around.

Just in case anyone’s wondering, why yes, I do teach writing classes and workshops.