do you know? If you write a long article, you will be beaten in ancient times. Don't believe it? Then watch a historical story with me!
Around the eighth year of Hongwu, floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters occurred one after another all over the country. Zhu Yuanzhang issued a letter asking courtiers and people to make suggestions.
Ru Taisu, assistant minister of punishments, immediately presented the memorial. Zhu Yuanzhang took a look at it in his hand, and it was another thick one, with more than 17, words by visual inspection. He frowned and was very unhappy.
but it's not easy to turn on the spot, so let Zhongshulang Wang Min read it to him. When Wang Min read 16,5 words, Zhu Yuanzhang still didn't hear a clue and shouted at Ru Taisu: "The empty words are inaccurate, the clever words are confusing, and I hate them." In other words, it's all empty talk, which makes me tired of listening.
Then, Zhu Yuanzhang sent someone to drag Ru Taisu down to the temple and beat up 2 boards.
It's wrong for Ru Taisu to be beaten, because not all his writing is empty talk! The next day, when Zhu Yuanzhang asked Wang Min to continue reading the remaining 5 words, he found that five suggestions in these 5 words were quite reasonable and immediately adopted four.
as the saying goes, "words are long, words are short", which means that you should say more, make it clear, and say less what you shouldn't. Ru Taisu just didn't understand what to say and what not to say.
so how do we grasp the boundary between "should say" and "shouldn't say", find a balance, and be specific and appropriate?
Then I have to mention this book "Simplified Writing" in my hand. Like the title, this book is very concise. The book has 2 pages, and it only takes about 3 hours to finish reading it. This book mainly talks about two aspects: first, how to write short articles; The second is how to write a short essay with a purpose. The dry goods are full, but I think there are only three important points. I will answer my initial question from three aspects: "learn to read", "imitate others" and "practice deletion": "How to write short and good articles".
Roy peter clarke, the author of this book, is also a legend. He was elected to the Hall of Fame, and was also known as the "National Writing Instructor", and trained a number of Pulitzer Prize-winning writers including Thomas Francci and Diana Sage.
1. Learn to read
Mr. Ye Shengtao once said, "Reading is absorption, while writing is pouring out. Whether pouring out is appropriate for statutes is obviously closely related to absorption."
Therefore, reading is the basis of writing. If you can't read a word, you can't understand the mystery of the sentence, let alone write an interesting article.
Reading follows five steps: scanning-intensive reading-blank page writing-reading with questions-self-answering.
since you are writing short essays, you should first collect your favorite short essays-poems, letters, movie outlines ... and then start reading.
1. scanning: scan from the end of the table of contents-text-to understand the general content and structure of the article.
2. intensive reading: intensive reading in places of interest, focusing on research.
3. Blank page writing: Inspiration always happens in an instant. When inspiration comes when reading, you must write it down in time for future reference, and this note can also be used as the material for future short articles.
4. Read with questions: What is the point of this passage? What does the author want to express in this sentence? Why can it impress me?
5. answer yourself.
For example:
Do you know how to write a story in six words?
I racked my brains and just wrote, "Sorry, I don't love you."
However, Hemingway wrote: "For sale: children's shoes, brand new."
In just six words, writers joined the literary movement of "Six-character Revolution", and I was moved by the story of these six words.
which word is the focus of this passage?
I've been thinking for a long time, and the words "brand-new" and "children's shoes" are the key points. Because brand-new children's shoes increase the impact of the story, why are children's shoes sold brand-new? It is likely that the baby is dead and can no longer be used. Originally, the baby represents a new life, and the new life dies, which makes the story more tragic.
why can it impress me?
I especially appreciate this hidden turning point. When I saw the words "children's shoes for sale", I felt plain. Isn't that selling shoes? But the word "brand-new", which seems to be a modifier, has a turning point. How pitiful is the baby who can no longer wear children's shoes? Is it dead? Still no feet? Success made me think.
It turns out that the reason why this six-word essay touched me is the use of: conflict+turning point.
The five-step reading is also a process in which the brain keeps moving. Only by thinking more can we gain something and write touching articles!
2. Imitate others
It is said that writing begins with imitation and ends with innovation.
And imitation is also asked by universities. It is only from the form of imitation, which is a good example. Therefore, our focus should be on the imitation of content.
Take Hemingway's six-character essay for example! The touching point of his story is conflict+turning point.
So, think about how to achieve this effect and start imitating writing.
Innovation comes from imitation, which is the foundation. If imitation is regarded as the goal, we can only become porters on the production line. Constantly breaking through, starting from imitation, let innovation take us to the other side of success.
3. practice deleting
the "five principles of simplicity" mentioned in the book
1. delete those words that have no substantive meaning.
2. Delete words with repeated meanings.
3. Delete those words whose meanings have been covered by other words.
4. replace phrases with words.
5. Turn negative into positive.
The skills of deletion need to be practiced repeatedly. The key point of practice is "You know what you want to present to readers".
Take the fox story that we are most familiar with:
If you want to show a fox who is good at innovation, you can write about the fox moving a ladder, finding someone to stack arhats, and picking grapes with a net bag. Your focus is on "how does it innovate";
If you want to show a fox who thinks too much and does too little, then let the fox show all his thoughts, focusing on "how does he think";
If you want to show a mob fox, then try your best to write about the violence of this fox; The focus is on "how violent it is."
For example,
Deletion is not unreasonable and crude compression, but the result of careful selection. Whether deleting or adding, we need to always remember the purpose of our writing, so as to be detailed and appropriate.
If you don't know your writing purpose, you can ask yourself:
"What's my point?"
"What do I want to say in this sentence?"
"What does this work really mean?"
The above are the three most important aspects in writing a short essay: "Learn to read", "Imitate others" and "Practice deleting".
The book "Simplified Writing" is concise and easy to understand. I strongly recommend everyone to read it. There are also some innovative short writing skills in this book-"dual structure", "learning symmetry" and "changing rhythm" which are also worthy of our careful study and use.
whether we are full-time writers, students or office workers, we can't live without writing. In the fast-paced contemporary era, readers' time is precious. What we have to do is not to waste their time and quickly catch each other's attention. Grove, the former president of Intel, once said: "The whole world will fight for attention, and whoever can attract more attention will become the master of the world." As far as writing is concerned, the premise of catching the attention of the other party is to express directly and accurately. Therefore, writing concise and accurate words is a skill that everyone needs to acquire in this era.
It's now or never. You should learn such an important skill quickly!