Thursday, August 20, 2009

On Writing

Over in her blog (http://rozakile.blogspot.com/), my wife Laurie talks about the state of writing and what passes for books these days. While reading it, I was reminded some lessons that I use in my CTY class.

One of the types of writing we cover is advertising. To get the kids started, I tell them we have invented the Ultimatoy, the world's greatest toy, and have them come up with all the things it can do. Once we have a list, I tell them they have to design a magazine ad for it. And then I tell them that the price is $6 million. They realize fairly quickly that they'd better not play up that bit of information. (Some are actually quite clever and figure out "convenient monthly payments" that will continue for centuries.)

The next lesson is quite the opposite. The Wonderful Weebil costs only 99c and, after showing it to them, I ask them to come up with all the things they could do with one. In fact, the Weebil is the plastic lid of a cole slaw container. In this lesson, they see that the price is the most important thing about the Weebil and when they design a package for it, they play that up and keep the product's true identity a secret.

When time permits, we move on to a third ad, one to sell the Writing & Imagination class they are in. Many of their efforts have been clever or amusing, but the one that remains my favorite was done in the very first class in which I used the lesson. One of the girls covered her entire page like so:

WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS WORDS

When I asked her what she was doing, she said, "Putting words on the paper."
"Ah," I said, "but is that writing?"
And, in one of those moments when you can actually see the idea light bulb go on, her face lit up. She grabbed a marker and wrote across the page:
JUST PUTTING WORDS ON PAPER DOESN'T MAKE IT WRITING!

Which brings us back to Laurie's blog (for those of you wondering about the synapse trail) and the fact that these days anyone with an internet connection who posts a stream of words somewhere thinks that they are writers. But, as many people who have tried to read the blather can attest, they aren't.

1 comment:

  1. "JUST PUTTING WORDS ON PAPER DOESN'T MAKE IT WRITING!"

    That is a brilliant reply - especially when you got the young lady to come up with it! It reminds me of a Jewish story about a non-Jew who came to the wise Rabbi Hillel, and he said, "Teach me the Torah while standing on one foot." Rabbi Elijah smiled and replied, "That which is distasteful to you, do not do to another."

    It seems that the best ideas and concepts are pretty easy to explain. And yours here is just terrific.

    I remain,
    Sincerely,
    Eric L. Sofer
    The Bad Clown
    x<]:o){

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