"Spunk & Bite"
Poynter columnist Chip Scanlon has a great column about a new book by Arthur Plotnik called
“Spunk & Bite: A Writer's Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language and Style.”One
of the challenges of being a freelance writer is convincing
well-meaning but short-sighted editors (particularly at newspapers)
that breaking the rules sometimes makes for interesting reading.
So
much of journalism today is so rigid and boring. I’m glad to see the
book is out and I’m going to pick it up and hope for inspiration and
affirmation. Plotnik’s from Chicago. Wonder if we can entice him to
address the SPJ Convention?
Here’s a taste from Scanlon’s interview. I particularly like the mantra:
What lessons in the book are most important for journalists?
Here are three:
1. Inherent in every lede should be this mantra-like pledge to readers:
"I promise that something will stimulate you if you keep reading." In
an era when words are up against HDTV, iPods, IMAX, and Xboxes, that
promise had better be there -- and be quickly delivered -- whether as
enlightenment, surprise, shock, amusement, fright, personal gain or
even sorrow.
2. Have faith in the power of language to compete with
anything. Does language still matter in this supposedly dumbed-down
world? You bet it does -- and will, until people stop using words to
symbolize everything that stimulates them. Nothing has ever stirred
juices and roused souls more than well-chosen words. Almost always you
will soar above the crowd or be lost in it depending on how you use
language.
3. Freshness rules. The surprising locution lights up
everything, even the murk associated with adjectives and adverbs. A
critic describes someone's hair as "defiantly limp" -- adverb. A writer
speaks of "setasideable sex, as setasideable as a floppy disk" --
adjective. Whatever the part of speech, if it's inventive and
unexpected, go with it.