‘All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” That was Ernest Hemingway’s advice for beginning a story. It works for column writing, too.
Last week, my colleague here at the Journal, Stacy Coleman, led a workshop on column writing for readers interested in contributing to our Viewpoints section, part of an effort to eventually expand the lineup of columnists for our newspapers here at Growing Community Media. To support that effort, I decided to write a column about … writing columns.
Here’s some of what I’ve learned over the past 40 years of doing just that:
First and foremost, don’t take gratuitous swipes at people (took me way too long to learn this). You can be critical without being unkind.
Don’t write angry. Don’t preach. Don’t scold. Don’t be self-indulgent. Readers will turn you off.
Don’t spin your wheels getting started. Dive in.
First drafts suck. Don’t worry about it. Just write. You may not find your one true sentence until the first or second — or 10th — draft.
When you get to the end of the first draft, go back and compose a headline. What is this column about? Distill it.
All real writing is rewriting, crafting. Take out what isn’t necessary and add what is essential.
Ask yourself, “Why should the reader care about this?”
Ask, “Why do I care about this?”
Ask, “Does it sound like I care about this?”
Use fewer words. This isn’t a word salad. It’s a garden. Weed your writing until it flowers, until it flows.
Don’t try to be funny. Don’t try to make the reader feel something. Don’t try to be profound. Don’t try to be wise. Don’t try too hard. Let it come naturally.
Ask yourself, “Is this just an ego trip or does it have wings?”
Reduce your presence. This isn’t just about you. Serve the story you’re telling.
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In choosing a topic, ask what’s most on readers’ minds that’s also most on your mind.
What are you most motivated to write about?
What’s not on readers’ radar that needs to be there? What injustice or insanity needs to be called out? What might make readers feel better in the midst of stressful times?
Is this topic a universal experience? It doesn’t have to be, but those topics tend to connect most with readers.
Never underestimate the power of pure whimsy. I won an award for a column on bird poop. Getting pooped on is close to a universal experience. Who can’t find a metaphor in getting shat upon from above?
Don’t just react to “current events” and don’t just be a “culture critic.” Have something constructive to contribute.
Don’t sound like everyone else. There are already too many conventional thinkers in the media. Be distinctive.
Do some homework to inform your opinion. But not too much! We want to hear your slant on all this.
If you have a point, get to it.
Be personal, vulnerable, but not excessively confessional. This isn’t therapy (though it might be therapeutic).
Take a firm stand, but never assume you have all the answers — or any of the answers for that matter. Arrogance always leads to humbling. Believe me, I know.
Writing a column is a practice. It takes discipline and endurance. Even a monthly column swings around sooner than you think.
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Ideally, readers will look forward to reading you, even when they disagree with you. Sometimes disagreeing with you is the reason they read it.
If someone tells you what your writing means to them, treasure it. But that’s not why you do this. Do it because you have to. Why you have to is, frankly, kind of a mystery. One famous writer said, “I write because I’m good at it.” I write because I want to keep getting better at it. You won’t keep writing if you aren’t driven to improve.
You need at least one reader who tells you the truth and gives helpful feedback, even if it stings.
Go beyond your default vocabulary. Wait. A better word will usually surface (“surface,” for instance, is better than “come to you”). How you say something is just as important as what you say. No message is superior to inferior messaging. You can always say it better.
Pay attention to the world around you. Observe, describe, find metaphors hiding in the everyday. A good column is a delivery system for delight. Be playful. That’s what words are for — that and, of course, communicating.
Don’t take it too seriously. This is a newspaper column, not the preamble to the Constitution. Take it just seriously enough.
Find poetry in the prosaic and the extraordinary in the ordinary. Put that in your one true sentence — even if you place it at the end instead of the beginning.
The goal isn’t to make your readers see things your way. On your best days, though, you might help readers think about something in a new way.
And when your column’s journey is over and your message is delivered, never leave your readers in any doubt that they have reached …
The end.