The Writers’ Nook is a place where we, as a group, can provide a safe and positive environment in which to encourage one another and hone our own writing skills.
Brevity in Writing
Brevity in writing refers to the practice of expressing ideas concisely and clearly. It isn’t about being brief for the sake of it — it’s about being effective. It enhances clarity and keeps the reader engaged. When you master the art of saying more with fewer words, your writing becomes clearer, more persuasive, and memorable. We will look at some examples.
Please bring a notebook and pen or pencil with you to the meeting, and if you can, bring a printed copy of the Handout to read and discuss at the meeting. Contact me if you need a password.
The Challenge
Your challenge after this meeting is over and before our next meeting on September 22nd will be to enter into a joint experiment. Take the Quick Write that you wrote at the beginning of this meeting, unless you have something else that you have previously written, and shorten it, removing words to temporarily turn it into a poem, of sorts. Brevity is the key. Poems are illusive things; they can illude to things that are not explicitly spoken. Poems don’t need that much punctuation; a line break says a lot. And poems don’t have to rhyme.
Part Two of the Challenge is to continue with the experiment. Now that you’ve turned it into the stanzas of a poem; add punctuation and words if needed, to turn it back into a paragraph(s). Consider what is lost, and what is found in each of these formats? Which do you like better? Bring the finished version back to the meeting on September 22nd to share with the rest of us. We will read these and discuss them at the next meeting instead of doing a Quick Write.
I also encourage you to send a pdf file of your finished version to me so I can post it here for our members to read at leisure and provide their comments.
Responses:
Responses to the Challenge:
— to come
Additional Postings for Feedback:
— Dorothy Francis by Marilyn McAllister
Feedback: Please provide your feedback to these stories in the space below.
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Marilyn, Dorothy Francis: I enjoyed reading this piece. It was well-written, clear, concise, and even if I didn’t know you as well as I do, I would be able to tell from the way you wrote it that you were intrigued and pleased to be invited to a pipe ceremony. Well done.