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Well look at that.
Can you believe this is already the fourth installment in our 11-part series on the essential ingredients of a blog post?
Time sure does fly when youÛªre having pure podcasting fun Û_ and churning out a new bite-sized episode each week.
WeÛªve already explained how to write a magnetic headline, discussed how to nail your opening, and (hopefully) convinced you about the importance of using persuasive words.
Today, we take it one step further.
Demian Farnworth imparts his vast wisdom to teach you what makes a good sentence a damn good sentence.
In this episode, we discuss:
- The importance of showing versus telling
- Why you should trust your reader
- How thinking about the 5 WÛªs (and the H) can help you write sentences
- Active versus passive voice
- Why reading Hemingway is one of the best lessons in sentence writing you could ever give yourself
- Tips to improve your writing that you can implement today
Listen to The Lede Û_
To listen, you can either hit the flash audio player below, or browse the links to find your preferred format Û_
- Click here to download the mp3 | 20 MB | 13:54
- Click here to subscribe via iTunes
- Click here for the RSS feed (non iTunes)
- Click here for the show archive
The Show Notes
- 5 Ways to Write a Damn Good Sentence ÛÓ by Demian Farnworth
- 10 Ways to Write Damn Good Copy ÛÓ by Demian Farnworth
- 7 Ways to Write Damn Bad Copy ÛÓ by Demian Farnworth
- Think You Know ÛÏHow To Write A SentenceÛ? ÛÓ NPR podcast with Stanley Fish
- Robert BruceÛªs Twitter and Google+ accounts
The Transcript
Click here to read the transcript
Please note that this transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and grammar.
The Lede Podcast: How to Write Damn Good Sentences
Jerod Morris: YouÛªre listening to The Lede, a podcast about content marketing by Copyblogger Media. If you want to get a content marketing education while you mow your lawn or while you fold your laundry, this podcast is the way to do it.
IÛªm your host Jerod Morris, and in this episode we resume our series on the essential ingredients of a blog post. You are going to learn about sentences, but not average or okay sentences Û_ damn good sentences. And who better than the Duke of Damn himself, Demian Farnworth, to explain how.
Demian, I like alliteration and I like giving credit where it is due, and so I have a new nickname for you: The Duke of Damn. ItÛªs one that you have earned with damn fine blog posts about how to write damn good copy, how to write damn bad copy, and of course, how to write damn good sentences ÛÓ which is the fourth in our rundown of the 11 essential ingredients of a blog post. You are a master at the art of the sentence, which is why I want to do a lot more listening than talking on this episode.
So letÛªs start with the obvious question: What is the difference between a good sentence and a damn good sentence?
Showing versus telling
Demian Farnworth: It boils down to this: the difference between showing and telling.
A good sentence would tell you whatÛªs going on in a particular action. So I might say, ÛÏShe is crying,Û versus something like ÛÏShe sobbed,Û or ÛÏShe was trembling.Û ItÛªs simply the quality of ÛÓ you have a concrete, specific image versus a sort of vague, ambiguous instruction. See, what youÛªre after is this goal of allowing people to use their imagination, and I think it comes down to this idea of being able to trust your reader, to trust them to use their imagination. And they will. I think thereÛªs some confidence that comes in enjoying, embracing that idea that people are going to. If you say, ÛÏShe wept,Û thatÛªs going to be more powerful than ÛÏShe was over there and her eyes were wet with tears.Û ItÛªs a lot more powerful when itÛªs short and sweet, and itÛªs powerful like that.
But itÛªs not easy, right? IÛªll admit that. It takes years of practice, but what youÛªre thinking about when youÛªre trying to show somebody, what youÛªre after, is being specific and concrete. And one way that I use to get to that point is to think through the five WÛªs. So youÛªre thinking of the who, the what, the where, the when, the why, and even the H, the how.
For example, you want to write a damn good sentence, so you would say, ÛÏIn Istanbul, the bullfighter liked to drink vinegar because it made him angry.Û So youÛªve got a pretty specific, concrete idea that would allow you to get a vivid picture of whatÛªs going on in that Û_ thereÛªs life to that Û_ and thereÛªs imagination. I know that just by saying the word ÛÏIstanbulÛ that people will get in their minds a sort of exotic, far-away, ancient city. ThereÛªs a lot of stuff thatÛªs sort of swirling around, and thatÛªs really the power of choosing the right words, choosing those powerful words, using those words that generate and paint that picture.
For the next part, in getting to that point of writing a damn good sentence, is this idea of creating images, and I kind of already did that. But here I want to talk more about something like this idea of the five senses. ThatÛªs what I kind of did in that previous sentence. But if you want to paint an image, you want to think through the five senses, also. So for example, that same sentence, I talked about, what is the weather like there? Is it hot? Is it cold? I imagine itÛªs probably hot there, so we might add some sort of elements of humidity, like ÛÏThe air was humid, was moist, was thick with water.Û We might talk about something like, what time of day is it? And what color is the sun? Is it golden, or is it more orange or red? And you might think of an odor, like vinegar. I said ÛÏvinegarÛ and a lot of people probably turned up their nose at that. So there was that sense of smell and odor going there. And so youÛªre thinkingÛ_.
Jerod: Let me ask you a question really quickly, Damien, because I know a lot of times we talk about specific and concrete, and sometimes that can be boiled down to mean ÛÏshort,Û because we talk a lot about short sentences.
Demian: Yes.
Jerod: How do you determine what is a detail worth giving, an image worth painting, and what is too much?
Demian: ThatÛªs a great question. I think itÛªs a gut thing, really, because obviously you canÛªt think through every sentence and put in the five senses, because then it would just become too much. It would be almost impossible for you to get anything done. It would also be overbearing for the reader himself, so you have to be selective. And it just takes time to kind of catch an ear.
Like, you may in one sentence just want to highlight some sort of color. Like the sight. And the next sentence, you want to heighten something about the texture and the smell. In the next sentence you may want to simply talk about the taste, or a sound they heard. And a good writer would combine those with action, right? With some sort of action. So instead of ÛÏHe ran up the stairs,Û say ÛÏHe darted up the rough-hewn stairs.Û
You want to combine all those pieces together, being specific, using active verbs versus passive verbs. And make sure you mesh those together, and sprinkle them throughout your senses when youÛªre hitting these sort of concrete and specific images.
Active versus passive voice
Jerod: Can I add a quick note on active versus passive verbs?
Demian: Yes.
Jerod: So youÛªre right, you want to make your verbs active, not passive. And if you actually want a good example, look no further than this very podcast, because last week I received an e-mail with the subject line simply, ÛÏPassive voice.Û And it said, quoting one of our episodes, ÛÏChange Û÷next week Demian and I will be resuming our series of the eleven essential ingredients of a blog post, weÛªll be discussing persuasive words and you wonÛªt want to miss it,Ûª change that to Û÷next week Demian and I resume our series on the eleven essential ingredients of a blog post. WeÛªll discuss persuasive words, and you wonÛªt want to miss it.ÛªÛ The difference, of course, is the verbs. ÛÏWill be resumingÛ gets replaced with ÛÏResume,Û and ÛÏwill be discussingÛ gets replaced with ÛÏweÛªll discuss.Û It makes those verbs active, right? You hear how much better that sounds, and it reads better too, because the subject of the sentence becomes the doer, and the verbs are invigorated.
And IÛªll give you one guess who sent me that much-appreciated, clear, concise, reminder about how to write better sentences. (Laughs)
Demian: (Laughs)
Jerod: SoÛ_.
Demian: Yeah.
Jerod: So yes, be active with your sentences, not passive, and itÛªs something I try my best to do that all the time, and it even slips in like that and you donÛªt even realize it. ItÛªs definitely something upon an edit you can go back, because thatÛªs one way to eliminate some of those unnecessary words so you can put in some of the ones that paint the picture, that make your sentences so much better.
The best sentence-writing teacher you can read
Demian: Right. And so, being an Ernest Hemingway fan ÛÓ and working for Copyblogger, you sort of have to be ÛÓ I read a ton of him probably 10, 15 years ago. And the thing that I walked away with was the simple sentence structure. ItÛªs a subject, and then a verb.
And when we talk about active versus passive verbs, youÛªre talking about instead of having an action done to something, someone is doing an action. So where it would say, ÛÏThe dog was kicked by that man,Û it would be just a simple inversion: ÛÏThe man kicked the dog.Û So yeah, talking about Ernest Hemmingway, I just remember reading it, such a simple sentence structure. Basically it was just subject and verb.
And I think that as far as weÛªre talking about, like ways to become better at this, is practicing writing that way. Simple sentence structure. Subject, verb.
Jerod: Mmm-hmm. ThatÛªs a good point, and letÛªs go to that, in terms of practice, and this can probably be a tip that we leave everybody with.
You know, as we prepped for this I was reading something ÛÓ and IÛªm going to put this in the show notes. ThereÛªs a podcast, an NPR podcast with Stanley Fish, the author of ÛÏHow to Write a Sentence.Û And he recounts in his book, actually, a story from Annie DillardÛªs book ÛÏThe Writing LifeÛ where she had a conversation with a painter ÛÓ asked him how he got into the profession. And he told her, ÛÏI like paint.Û And of course, as Fish explains, you have to really have a feel for the nitty-gritty material of the medium, and so as a writer thereÛªs nothing more nitty-gritty than words and sentences.
Demian: ThatÛªs right.
Tips to improve your sentence writing
Jerod: And so Demian, what would you say is a tip or two that people can take away from this that will make them better at just that simple, nitty-gritty art of writing sentences?
Demian: I would definitely encourage anybody, whether they can stomach his stories or not, to read as much Hemingway as you can.
Outside of that, one of the ways that I kind of mastered the ability to do this, at least get really trained highly in it, was early in my career I wrote a ton of text ads ÛÓ Google AdWords text ads. So I was forced to compress those words into a meaningful, persuasive message in a short space. So that really forced me to write small. But you donÛªt have to do text ads like that.
You could also treat your Twitter account this way, and just give yourself the task of, say, writing 100 Twitter posts a day for seven days, and in each one you just try to, within 140 characters, tell a story. Make a message. Use one of the five senses. Dig into the five ÛÏwhos.Û
Another trick you can do is try to condense an event, like a historical event like the Civil War, into one sentence. Sometimes I will go read the front page of Wikipedia or the front page of The New York Times. Read a few of those stories, and then try to tell that story within one sentence.
And finally after every article or blog post that you actually read, try to summarize that particular article or blog post in one sentence. That will give you practice. Not only will it help you remember what you just read and sort of process what you just read, but it will also force you to write those sentences, saying a lot into one sentence. ThatÛªs really what it boils down to: just trying to stuff a lot into a small space, as much space as you can with the sentence.
And hereÛªs the thing to keep in mind, too: youÛªre not going to do this with every single sentence. I donÛªt sit there and agonize over every single sentence. ItÛªs pretty much kind of native to me now, and I do dozens of rewrites of stuff that I write where IÛªm working systematically through each word. But I donÛªt give the same amount of attention over each sentence. I just try to, for the most part, kind of work that into the sort of warp and woof of what IÛªm writing.
Jerod: Yeah, and if you want to see a great example of what Demian was talking about with Twitter and summing up a story in one sentence, follow Robert Bruce on Twitter and Google Plus.He does a great job of showing that.
All right, Demian. Thank you very much.
Demian: Thank you.
Jerod: I thought you did a damn good job today.
Demian: (Laughs) Thank you, Jerod. I appreciate it. Lived up to my name.
Jerod: (Laughs) WeÛªll talk soon.
Demian: All right. Thank you, sir.
Jerod: Thank you for listening to The Lede. If you are enjoying our show, please consider leaving us a rating or a review on ITunes, or tweet about us, or tell a friend. We appreciate your helping us spread the word any way you can.
The next installment of our series on the essential ingredients of a blog post will be about killer bullet points. Now you may not think bullet points are a topic with enough meat to demand their own episode, but youÛªd be wrong. Listen and youÛªll see. Talk to you soon, everybody.
# # #
*Credits: Both the intro (ÛÏBridge to NowhereÛ by Sam Roberts Band) and outro songs (ÛÏDown in the ValleyÛ by The Head and the Heart) are graciously provided by express written consent from the rights owners.
About the authorJerod MorrisJerod Morris is the Director of Content for Copyblogger Media. Get more from him on Twitter, Google+, or at JerodMorris.com.
The post How to Write Damn Good Sentences appeared first on Copyblogger.
