1. Word selection. I’ll never forge

1. Word selection. I’ll never forget when my 10th grade creative writing teacher praised a piece that I had written about giving my dog a bath. He loved that I chose the verb “scurried” and the phrase “dime-sized portion” and told me that I had a knack for choosing the exact right word/phrase at the right time. That has stuck with me, and I’ve made it a personal challenge to pinpoint the precise word I need and not settle for a workable but blah impostor. Thanks Mr. I!
2. Creativity. Yes, I have a vivid imagination, but sticking to the word theme, I like to make up words (particularly if silly puns are involved — hi Scarlett!) or just put them together in a way that no one else has. An example? “Workable but blah” above. It may not be grammatically correct, but I think it works.
My writer’s license is a broad one because I feel that the language is mine to play with, and if it gets my point across, well, a little grammar slide every now and again isn’t going to put in me in Writers’ Purgatory (not for too long, anyway).
By the way, I word-play in Italian now too, at least in speech. Last night I told P he is “ossoso” (oh-SOH-soh) which is my made-up Italian word for “bony.” You see, “osso” is bone, and “oso” is a common adjective ending in Italian (e.g., vento = wind; ventoso = windy). The real Italian word is “ossuto” but doesn’t “ossoso” just roll off your tongue?
3. Unpretentious/honest. I write like I’m talking to you, and I’ve had many people tell me how much they enjoy reading my emails and letters because of this. So I have to think I’m doing something “write.” Hah! Seriously though, these two concepts go together for me personally because being unpretentious *is* honest for me — that’s just the way I am whether I’m writing or not.
One of my favorite college professors, a Virginia Woolf scholar which only made her even cooler in my mind, wrote on one of my papers that “the reader feels like she’s in good hands.” I didn’t really get it at the time, but I knew it was a good thing and I’ve never forgotten it. I always want my readers to feel that, and so that’s what I try to achieve.
4. Organized and logical progression. Who would have thought that going to law school would have made me a better writer? I joke with people that they actually tried to beat all the good writing habits out of me, but of course that’s not (entirely) true. In reality, I learned to deeply analyze issues from every angle, look for holes at every turn, and then exploit tiny cracks in logic and make them seem like huge gaps. I also learned to present arguments one baby step at a time, spelling out for the reader exactly what you want him to know when you want him to know it.
When I put it that way, it almost makes sense that writers take a turn through law school, doesn’t it? Well, that’s because I’m conveniently leaving out the rest, but I do think it helped me to organize my thoughts and present them in a way that makes sense — crucial for any writer.
5. Passion for the written word. I’m blessed to be the kind of person who can do a lot of things pretty well, but in order for me to really succeed at something, I have to enjoy it. Or, to paraphrase Dicky Fox in Jerry Maguire: if my heart’s not in it, my head doesn’t matter.