the craft. word choice.
Words, words, words. I can’t help but think about the importance of words while I’m in this revising process. It seems obvious that words would be at the forefront of this thing we all do, but there is so much depth to the possibilities when it comes to words. How we put them together, which ones we choose, all come together to build our approach and style.
Early in my writing career, I noticed working with editors always upped the ante when it came to what I was trying to say in an article. They elevated my writing in a way that helped me start to learn how to approach my own self-editing process. There are these two parts really when it comes to the writing process. It’s getting the thoughts out of your head and onto paper. Then once they’re on paper, making them actually make sense to other people.
What often comes out first is the simplest version of how we need to get an idea across. When I am working back through a project, whether it’s as simple as a 1200 word article or an 80k word novel, I’m constantly asking myself, how can I say this better?
I find this in describing minor secondary characters in fiction. I noticed I have devices that I lean on like eyes or hair color. But there are much more robust ways to describe people. Some that aren’t always tied to the most obvious physical attributes.
“The brunette receptionist,” then becomes: “The former pageant queen passed her prime, sat behind the reception desk.”
“The older gentleman,” becomes: “A man with salt and pepper hair and a soft middle spilling over the waist of his chinos.”
In nonfiction writing, it can be much the same as figuring out another way to refer to a subject in an article when I’ve already called them their stage name, last name, and award winning songstress or whoever they may be.
Word choice stretches us. It’s what I admire the most about poets. Their ability to describe the simplest thing in the most beautiful way. It’s what I’ve learned is one the gifts of someone like Toni Morrison. How she manipulates language. This isn’t to take away from your personal style. I consider myself a “simple” writer for lack of a better way to describe it. You won’t get a bunch of art thou and theys from me. However, I do want to make my prose sing. I want you to read a line that makes you want to read it again. Like how I felt about this line from You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty:
“Feyi and Alim sat like that for a long time swapping memories of their lost loves, until the night ran out of darkness and fell into morning.”
And that takes time. It takes a lot of reading which is a great vocabulary builder. It takes tuning in and quieting yourself enough to have great ideas come to you. It takes observation and practicing describing the most mundane things in different ways. Like how many ways can I describe someone coming through a door?
He emerged from the door.
He crept through the door.
He smashed through the door.
He creaked through the door.
He fell through the door.
It may have been in The Pieces I Am where Morrison talked about the simplicity of word choice in the work as an editor. Initially what we write may not be the most profound or innovative, but we can elevate the work with our word choice. Instead of saying tired, we say exhausted. We say they were bewildered as opposed to confused. Hesitant vs slow.
The words we choose help to lift our writing right off of the page. Makes the work a lot more three dimensional to pull the reader in. It helps to envelop them in the story being told. This idea around the words we choose makes me think of this sentiment.
“Easy reading is damn hard writing.”
Putting words together is the work, right? But choosing the best words to convey our ideas can be challenging AF! How do we say it the best way? How do we get across the real emotion behind a scene? How do we keep a reader engaged with the subject matter? All of it is so much more strategic and pointed than we often give ourselves credit for.
I haven’t met the writer that immediately writes the best thing ever in that initial drafting stage. It’s all in the revision. In the thinking. In attacking the work from an objective space that asks, is this the best way I could have said it?
Writing/Job Opportunities
Good Fit is Slate’s new exercise column and accepting pitches. Shannon Palus will be writing some entries, and editing entries by others. She will be reviewing a round of pitches on Jan 11. shannon.palus@slate.com "fitness pitch" at the front of the subject line. rates are $300-$750.
Applications are open for the 2023 LES Center residency award for writers. The Lillian E. Smith Center sponsors the annual Writer-in-Service Award, which includes a two-week residency at the Center, a $500 honorarium, and a $500 travel allowance. Applications are usually accepted from November through mid-January, with the winner named in late February.
Mark Yarm is looking for smart, ambitious, and unexpected tech-related stories for BuzzFeed News: .33/word for essays; .50/word for reported pieces. No deadline for pitches. mark.yarm@buzzfeed.com.
It's January and Wired (Angela Chen) is accepting pitches. Send your cranky critiques, weird ideas, lyrical essays, far-off proposals—rates start at $500, email: ideas@wired.com.
Ily Mag is looking for pitches for reported stories/trend pieces (think less tik-tok trends, more larger studies) on self-love, dating, romance, friendship, parenthood and familial love, NO PERSONAL ESSAYS. Rates up to $200. Email rae@ilymag.com.
All pitches MUST HAVE the following:
- a subject line that says "Pitch:" followed by the (or a if you're sending a few) proposed headline
- the pitch itself
- how you want to write the story (sources? format? etc)
JP Morgan Chase & Co is hiring a Senior Editor.
Rolling Stone is hiring a Senior Entertainment Editor.
Healthline Media is hiring an Associate Editor.
Guardian News and Media is hiring an Audience Engagement Editor - underrepresented communities.