By Darpan Singh
During my early days in journalism, one of our colleagues often seemed to guess that those who spoke English eloquently must be not-so-good at writing (we didn’t know the causation, but secretly savoured the conclusion). It became clear only later that there was no correlation.
We were in a small town where Hindi was the medium for conversations. It was no different for those who wrote English copies well. They also mostly spoke in Hindi for obvious reasons. And the sample size of people who spoke English eloquently but were not-so-good at writing in the language was naturally, and unfairly, tiny.
Actually, those who struggled to produce a good copy had a pleasing turn of phrase but nothing much to say, as former BBC journalist Allen Little would say. So, have something to say before you can say it effectively.
On the internet, and also off it, there is an enormous amount of resource on effective writing. Most of them seem to suggest rules that are helpful. Have clarity about what you want to write; decide on a structure; be precise; avoid metaphors whose literal meaning you don’t know; use adjectives in moderation; never use two or three words when one will do; prefer the active voice; cut out jargons and clichés; and vary the length of your sentences.
It can be a long list. So, I won’t even attempt drawing up one. I will only draw from my experiences and lessons that I have been fortunate to learn from my mentors, both directly and otherwise. It won’t even pretend to be a guide. The idea is to trigger a process.
Whether you have to file a news article or write a blog piece, treat it like a short story (this advice isn’t for long-form writing or aspiring book authors). Start writing and finish it. Try to avoid breaks. Don’t Google, and resist going back to what you have scribbled on your notepad. Rely on memory, verify with notes later. Now is the time to run checks for spellings, grammar and factual accuracy.
You will notice the copy faced fewer distractions, is coherent and has a distinct style to it. You discover your signature. Be fair to yourself, the flair will come.
By instinct, we’re all good story-tellers. But in our pursuit of learning the craft, we inculcate writing practices without questioning them, and without seeking better alternatives. Many of them don’t make much sense, but we merely turn up (and not run in with excitement, commitment or curiosity) on the field — we go through the motions.
We end up writing for people from our profession. We don’t realise when we start taking pleasure and pride in producing copies that have difficult words and complicated phrases. If somebody hasn’t had to consult the dictionary, we have failed. That’s human nature. It’s difficult to achieve simplicity. But not too difficult.
Write simply, like you’re speaking to ordinary people. Show in your writing, describe, don’t just tell. Always ask yourself: Why would somebody care to read? Make a conscious effort to introduce that context and timelines to the reader. Read aloud what you have written. Hear yourself. Revise. And keep finding your own ways of effective writing.
The author is Delhi-based senior journalist.
