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Thou Shalt:
Ten Commandments of Good Writing
By Charles Euchner
Creator
The Writing Code
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yottabytes of data. Those advances come from a vast accumulation of data, equations,
rules and laws, and analyses. It’s all very abstract.
Which is great. But . . .
To really connect with readers—to get and keep their
attention, to explain complex ideas—you need to show action
and tap into emotions.
Animals—including the human animal—are programmed
to respond to movement, sounds, touches, smells, and changes
in the environment. Action arouses our attention. Your job as
a writer, quite simply, is to attract and keep people’s attention.
So show action.
What do I mean by action? It could be anything from a
wink or nod to a riot.
A scientist named Paul Eckman has developed a whole system to interpreting
people’s “microexpressions.” As the name suggests, microexpressions are small and
often last for just fractions of a second. A psychologist named John Gottman can assess
the likelihood of marital bliss in couples by watching their microexpressions for five
minutes.
So, you see, you don’t need a lot of explosions or chase scenes to show action.
So what makes someone’s wink or nod “action”? And does that mean everything that
moves, great and small, is action?
Action must matter. Somehow, to count as action, something has to change. Suppose
I sit in a crowded theater and nod when a speaker says something. If our story focuses on
the speaker, my nod doesn’t change anything. It’s not meaningful; it’s not, therefore,
action. But suppose the story focuses on me and my struggle to understand an idea. When
I hear the speaker’s words, I nod. That nod constitutes action if it changes my story.
What about emotion? Do stories really need emotion?
Absolutely. Emotions don’t just help people stay engaged. They also help people to
understand. In fact, brain researchers have found that rational thought is not possible
without emotion. The intellectual development of many autistics, to take one example,
gets stuck when they cannot develop or express feelings.
Emotion compresses ideas. If I feel emotional when I visit my old primary school, it’s
because that image distills all kinds of ideas—about my family, friends, childhood,
hopes, fears, successes, failures, losses, and more. When I need to understand something
about education, my emotions help me to organize my ideas.
I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, “Do not worry. You have
always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true
sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.” So finally I would write one true
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sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true
sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say. If I started to write
elaborately, or like someone introduci ng or presenting something, I found that I could
cut the scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple
declarative sentence I had written.
Once you write “one true sentence,” it’s easier to write another
sentence . . . then another . . . then another. Before long, you’re
writing paragraphs, then pages. No more writer’s block.
So how do you write one true sentence? I just told you. Write a
subject . . . then a verb . . . then an object.
Nothing matters unless you write great sentences. If you can write
great sentences, over and over, you will become a good writer. If you
don’t, forget it.
Too many writing teachers fail to teach their students how to write
good sentences. They get so caught up with the five-paragraph
structure and “compare and contrast” and quotations that they don’t
explain how to build a great sentence.
So even professional writers write horrible, vague, meandering, inexact, and boring
sentences.
Focus on writing simple, sturdy sentences. You can write some elaborate sentences,
too. But first, write simple and “true” sentences. Then you can do anything as a writer.
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THOU SHALT: TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GOOD WRITING
On and on McPhee goes, describing the most complex topics with simple little words.
Occasionally he must introduce a technical idea-like U-235, or critical mass—but he
always gives us a simple explanation.
Patience allows McPhee to get small words to do big jobs. He understands that the
best way to explain something is not to pile on ideas like men in a rugby scrum, but to
spread them out like wedding guests in a receiving line. Simple words and sentences,
presented one at a time in the right sequence, make it possible to explain even the most
complex ideas.
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THOU SHALT: TEN COMMANDMENTS OF GOOD WRITING
1. Start strong: Start by checking if you start every sentence strongly, with a clear
statement of who does what.
2. Finish strong: Then see if you end every sentence with a bang—some kind of point,
question, or image that propels the reader to the next sentence.
3. One idea per paragraph: Then check your paragraphs. Make sure every
paragraph states and develops just one idea. Label the ideas as you go. If you have more
than one idea in a paragraph, take it out. Either delete it or
use it in another paragraph.
4. Action: Then make sure you use action verbs; avoid “to
be” and “to have.”
5. Words: Now look at your other words. Do you use
specific words, so the reader can see, hear, and feel
what’s happening? Do you limit your use of adjectives
and adverbs?
6. Modifiers: Look for sentences that seem to go on
forever. Here’s a trick for that: Look for prepositional
phrases, which modify nouns. I have seen sentences with
a dozen or more prepositional phrases. So what? Here’s what: Every modifier takes you a
step away from the action—and adds to the length of the sentence.
7. Punctuation: Finally, get all the punctuation right. Think of punctuation as a form of
traffic control. Stop with periods, pause with commas, look ahead with colons, merge
with semicolons, warn of uncertain conditions with question marks and exclamation
points.
Step by step, attack the problems in your piece. If you just focus on one issue at a time,
your brain will veer in on mistakes like a heat-seeking missile. And you won’t get pooped
before finishing the job.
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He called the “the ladder of abstraction.” And he explained that good communication
requires climbing up and down the ladder, to talk at the appropriate level of specificity or
generality.
I like to thing of it this way. All writing is about storytelling. It’s just that some
stories are on the lower rungs of the ladder—and others are at the higher rungs of the
ladder.
Stories talk about particular people doing particular things in particular places at
particular times, with particular results. So: Dorothy pined for a place “over the
rainbow” after being shooed away by her aunt and uncle
and attacked by an angry woman named Miss Gulch.
Then a tornado came along and . . .
Analysis talks in categories, in generalities—at the
higher runs of the ladder. Rather than talking about
specifics, analysis gathers up whole batches of
information to talk about how things tend to happen. Now
think of Dorothy as just one of countless children.
So: Young people need to belong and feel special.
When adults ignore or scold them, they dream of going
someplace else. Not just Dorothy, but young people
everywhere and all times. Not just Auntie Em and Uncle
Henry and Miss Gulch, but all adults. Not just over the rainbow, but any kind of place far
from the pains of growing up.
Get it? When you tell a story, get particulory*; when you analyze, generalize.
*
I know, particulory isn’t even a word. But I thought it would make a good mnemonic
device.
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Charlie Euchner is the first person I turn to — not just because he’s so terrific at what he
does, but also because his enthusiasm and energy for the writing process are without peer.
—Wayne Coffey, Sports writer, The New York Daily News, author of
The Boys of Winter (New York Times bestseller)
Charles Euchner is the rare talent who can both write and teach. He has now codified his
wisdom in The Writing Code, with all the skills you need to become a strong writer. One
day in a classroom with Charlie Euchner will save you months of frustration and make
writing anything — books, articles, reports — much easier. Trust me, it works.
—Former Ambassador Nancy E. Soderberg, author of The
Superpower Myth
A great way to get everybody from students to practicing professionals excited about the
skills, knowledge, and work habits that go into the composition of clear, solid prose . . .
with just the right blend of rigor, encouragement, and fun.
—Alex Heard Editorial Director of Outside magazine and author
of The Eyes of Willie McGee
If you once loved writing, hearing Charlie will move you to once again reengage in that
art. If you write marketing material for your business, you will learn some great tips how
to draw readers in and leave them wanting more. Take advantage of the opportunity to
work with Charlie—it is a good investment of your time and money.
—Ann Marie Sidman, Vice President, Learning and Development,
Gen Re, a Berkshire Hathaway Company
Charlie is one of those unique individuals who understands how the world works and can
communicate it better than nearly anyone I know.
—Barry Bluestone, Dean, School of Public Policy & Urban
Affairs, Northeastern University
The genius of a Charlie Euchner presentation is in the simple eloquence with which he
delivers a bounty of usable information and advice. He connects with people using a
conversational style loaded with ideas borne from his years of application and research.
He is as accessible as an old friend. Listening to Charlie extemporaneously engage a
group is an exhibition of a brilliant and nimble mind at work.
—Chris Carroll, Director of Student Media, Vanderbilt University
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