The RIGHT WORD: Mark Twain on "William Dean Howells"

No one says it like Mark Twain.

And Twain says no one says it like William Dean Howells.

In the matter of verbal exactness Mr. Howells has no superior, I suppose. He seems to be almost always able to find that elusive and shifty grain of gold, the RIGHT WORD. Others have
to put up with approximations, more or less frequently; he has better luck. To me, the others are miners working with the gold-pan--of necessity some of the gold washes over and escapes; whereas, in my fancy, he is quicksilver raiding down a riffle--no grain of the metal stands much chance of eluding him. A powerful agent is the right word: it lights the reader's way and makes it plain; a close approximation to it will answer, and much traveling is done in a well-enough fashion by its help, but we do not welcome it and applaud it and rejoice in it as we do when THE right one blazes out on us. Whenever we come upon one of those intensely right words in a book or a newspaper the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt: it tingles exquisitely around through the walls of the mouth and tastes as tart and crisp and good as the autumn-butter that creams the sumac-berry. One has no time to examine the word and vote upon its rank and standing, the automatic recognition of its supremacy is so immediate. There is a plenty of acceptable literature which deals largely in approximations, but it may be likened to a fine landscape seen through the rain; the right word would dismiss the rain, then you would see it better. It doesn't rain when Howells is at work.

Mark Twain on "William Dean Howells"

Verbal traffic controls

Disclosure: I am a confessed grammar scofflaw, which sometimes riles editors. In a feature article, I once used the phrase, "...it was her." The grammar checkers tried to pin me down and make me change it to "...it was she."

I wrote back, quoting chapter and verse in my defense. And I added: "Please don't make me sound like my 5th grade English teacher..... It's perfectly acceptable to say 'It was her.' Send the grammar police to me if they have complaints."

So, you can see I'm no purist. Still, after rereading an ambiguous sentence a few times, I did ask one of my favorite writers about his cavalier attitude to punctuation.

He replied:

When passing a punctuation stop sign or running a syntactical red light, I will flash my poetic license, which if it ever lapsed, I hereby declare renewed.

I answered him,

When it comes to verbal traffic controls, I keep one rule in mind:

WATCH FOR PEDESTRIANS

Pity the poor pedestrian readers. Make it safe and easy to keep reading to the next page, and the next, and the next.......

Believe in your gift as a writer

Important message from Nick Usborne. Important for everyone. But especially for writers

Believe in your gift as a writer, and don’t let anyone take it away.

About Writing

I was thinking about the post I wrote yesterday (Best Blogs for Writers).  And an old line hit me like icewater in the face:

Talking about writing isn't writing. Reading about writing isn't writing. Writing is writing!

Have you hugged a writer today?

John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, shares some valuable suggestions on how to help your favorite writer:
30 Ways to Help a Book Author Market His or Her Books

They run from the most obvious:

Buy your friend's book. Encourage other friends to buy the book. Go to your local library or bookstore and encourage them to buy the book. Buy books as gifts.

To my favorite:

Pray. Prayer always helps. Pray for your friend and his book. If you're not into prayer, ask your favorite tree to help.

Why to hire a copywriter

When I wrote my post on Mel Martin's Fascinations, I included a link to an article on Mel Martin by Denny Hatch, copywriter, direct mail archivist, editor, and author.

In another article, Hatch takes out after marketers who should know better, but still skimp on professional copywriting. He writes:

I once had a client...who thought very little of copywriters. "Just create some verbiage," he used to say with a dismissive wave. I was reminded of an old story:

"What do you do?" a guy at a cocktail party was asked.

"I'm a brain surgeon," was the reply. "What do you do?"

"I'm a writer."

"Ah," said the brain surgeon. "I've often thought that when I retire I'd like to try some writing."

"And when I retire," said the writer, "I plan to try a little brain surgery."

Read the rest at "Professional copywriters are worth their weight in gold"

Gary Halbert Teaches the Real Art of Writing Copy.

 In the hand of the late Gary Halbert, the pen was truly mightier than the sword. His newsletter was a valued resource of ideas and techniques. In a fit of generosity, Halbert put most of his archive online. In this episode (his letters were adventures, not just information), he gives a crash course in copywriting. He starts out:

Last month I promised this month I would teach you the real art of writing copy. I am now about to keep that promise.....

Read the rest on The Gary Halbert Letter

Writing by Hand?

This post is a supreme act of hypocrisy. I am blogging about Writing by Hand!

Here I am... tapping away at my keyboard. But the Luddite in me is telling me I've gone soft and should go back to real writing.

OK, I'm not alone. Emmy-Award winning scriptwriter Robert Avrech told me he writes with a fountain pen. But he writes his (also award-winning) blog on his Powerbook!

Copywriter Robert Stover writes:

Want to start writing better copy - instantly?
Then perhaps you need to throw out your computer and pick up a pen.

This insight comes from writing teacher Shari Wilson.

She noticed that her student’s writing transitions, flow and idea sequencing was better on handwritten in-class essays over those they worked on outside of class with a computer.

I've done some of my best writing in spiral notebooks... on the Subway! But I find it hard to give up the luxury of the word processor at home. The problem is the computer and the Net are recalcitrant tools. A #2 pencil doesn't distract you as much from your subject matter. Mark Twain anticipated this with his essay on the typewriter.

How do you write? Do you write a first draft with pen or pencil and only then fire up the computer? Or do you write your drafts on the computer?

Creative Writing Challenge to Bloggers

Answers.com is running a Creative Writing Challenge for bloggers.

They are offering prizes for "creative writing genius": writing a story or poem using ten words/phrases they randomly choose. Prizes include Amazon gift certificates along with blog mentions on Answers.com and link love.

Click here for the submission details.