Natalie Goldberg and George Orwell

I overheard some classmates discussing helpful writers' guides. The critiques I've given so far have all come from some basic rules- show don't tell, be specific, make it personal, etc.- that I read in high school in a WONDERFUL writer's guide by Natalie Goldberg called "Writing Down the Bones". (It even comes pocket sized, no bigger than a cellphone or cigarette pack.) Goldberg says "There's an old adage in writing: 'Don't tell, but show.' What does this actually mean? It means don't tell us about anger (or any of those big words like honesty, truth, hate, love, sorrow, life, justice, etc.); show us what made you angry. Don't tell readers what to feel. Show them the situation and that feeling will awaken in them." She reminds you not to say "fruit", say what kind of fruit it is- say "pomegranate". Don't say "flower", say "geranium". Another nice writer's guide is "poemcrazy", though I don't know the author. The author suggests beginning a word collection- like a stamp or coin collection. They don't have to be huge, impressive words. I haven't kept up with mine but some I have so far are: gosling, bolus, efflorescence, coagulate, muscadine, phantasmagoric, berzerk, flamenco. I also rediscovered an essay by George Orwell called "Politics and the English Language" which contains some straightfoward advice for simplifying and clarifying language. Among other things, Orwell reminds us to avoid "dying metaphors" like "toe the line, play into the hands of, Achilles' heel" which "have lost all evocative power and are merely used because they save people the trouble of inventing phrases for themselves". The essay is very short. If you copy this url into your browser you should be able to download a pdf version from here.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6124822