Column #7: LISTEN
Want to be a writer?
•Listen.
•Eavesdrop.
•Enjoy waiting in line.
•Choose 50 items or less line at grocery store.
•Scan tabloid while listening. Appear nonchalant; be cool.
•But listen.
•Take the crowded bus, the packed train.
•Listen to rude cellphone chatter.
•Train your ear.
•Everything is material because everything's alive.
•Your writing should be alive.
•How?
•Specifics: Details spring words to life.
•Don't ask: "Why won't that bird shut up?"
•Ask: "What kind of bird was that?"
•Don't ask: "Why won't that guy shut up?"
•Ask: "What kind of guy says that?"
•Be invisible; be wallpaper, a fly on the wall
•Feel blood pressure drop when delayed, jostled, waitingwaiting
•Never be bored again.
•You are a spy:
•Shut up. Listen.
•The world is a noisy mess.
•Make it work for you.
•Capture mental soundbites to relay to page, then
•Revel in the sound of silence:
•Ahhhhhh
•Now fill it up with what you've heard.
•Listen.
(more to come-stay tuned) Read More
Want to be a writer?
•Listen.
•Eavesdrop.
•Enjoy waiting in line.
•Choose 50 items or less line at grocery store.
•Scan tabloid while listening. Appear nonchalant; be cool.
•But listen.
•Take the crowded bus, the packed train.
•Listen to rude cellphone chatter.
•Train your ear.
•Everything is material because everything's alive.
•Your writing should be alive.
•How?
•Specifics: Details spring words to life.
•Don't ask: "Why won't that bird shut up?"
•Ask: "What kind of bird was that?"
•Don't ask: "Why won't that guy shut up?"
•Ask: "What kind of guy says that?"
•Be invisible; be wallpaper, a fly on the wall
•Feel blood pressure drop when delayed, jostled, waitingwaiting
•Never be bored again.
•You are a spy:
•Shut up. Listen.
•The world is a noisy mess.
•Make it work for you.
•Capture mental soundbites to relay to page, then
•Revel in the sound of silence:
•Ahhhhhh
•Now fill it up with what you've heard.
•Listen.
(more to come-stay tuned) Read More