Chip's Writing Lessons #80

Newsletter

In this issue:

• Writers Speak | William Gibson on not knowing middles

• Interview | 4 Questions with Kevin Sullivan

• Craft Lesson | Modeling lessons

• Writing to Savor | “The Other Afghan Women,” by Anand Gopal, The New Yorker, Sept. 6, 2021

• Book World | Book talk, indie bookstore, audiobook available

• Tip of the Week | To write well, you must first write poorly

• Help Royal Hospitallers save lives in Ukraine

WRITERS SPEAK

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"I always know the end. The end of everything I write is somehow always implicit from the beginning. What I don't know is the middle. I don't know how I'm going to get there."

-William Gibson

INTERVIEW | 4 QUESTIONS WITH KEVIN SULLIVAN

Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

Kevin Sullivan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning senior correspondent and associate editor for The Washington Post. He was a Post foreign correspondent for 14 years, then served as chief foreign correspondent, deputy foreign editor, and Sunday and features editor. He has reported from more than 75 countries on six continents. Sullivan and his wife, Mary Jordan, were The Post’s co-bureau chiefs in Tokyo, Mexico City and London. They won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for their coverage of the Mexican criminal justice system. They, with four Post photographers, were finalists for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for stories about difficulties facing women around the world. Sullivan, reporting from Saudi Arabia, was part of a Washington Post team that was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Sullivan and Jordan also won the George Polk Award in 1998 for coverage of the Asian financial crisis, as well as awards from the Overseas Press Club and the Society of Professional Journalists. Sullivan and Jordan are co-authors of Trump on Trial in 2020 (updated and published in paperback as “Trump’s Trials” in 2021); “Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland,” a No. 1 New York Times bestseller in 2015; and “The Prison Angel” in 2005. Sullivan and Jordan contributed a chapter to “Nine Irish Lives” in 2018. Sullivan also contributed a chapter to “Trump Revealed,” The Post’s 2016 biography of Donald Trump.

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned as a writer?

Beware of finishing. I love to finish things, the satisfaction of accomplishment. That’s fine when you’re mowing the lawn, but it’s dangerous when you’re writing. I’m too quick to call something good. Good enough. Done. Mary Jordan, my wife and writing partner, doesn’t ever consider a piece of writing complete. (See her Four Questions interview.) She fixes and fixes, then fixes the fixes, then starts again. She’s taught me to beware of the cheap charm of the finish line.

What has been the biggest surprise of your writing life?

The lifelong satisfaction of it. I stumbled into journalism because I loved to write and didn’t know what else to do with that fact. Writing has taken me and my family around the planet and into the lives of amazing people.  And they still pay me to do it.

If you had to choose a metaphor to describe yourself as a writer, what would it be?

A card dealer. I love sitting down to write with a cup of coffee, notes, thoughts, a plan. Then I start flipping cards in my head, looking for the words. Sometimes I bust. Every so often I hit a royal flush. I love the serendipity.

What is the best piece of writing advice anyone ever gave you?

Don Murray, my college journalism professor and friend, said you can always measure the quality of a piece of writing by the quality of what you cut. No matter how much you love a phrase or sentence you wrote, or how hard you worked to land some key fact, remember that the piece may be sharper and more powerful without it. Simple and true.

CRAFT LESSON | EMBRACE IMITATION

In the early 1800s, an English writer named Charles Caleb Colton published a book of aphorisms, including one still popular: “Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.” “Form,” added later, rounds out the way we know it today.

But for those of us trying to become better writers, imitation is more than flattery; it’s a powerful and time-honored way to master the craft. “Numerous writers—Somerset Maugham and Joan Didion come to mind—recall copying long passages verbatim from favorite writers, learning with every line,” says Stephen Koch in The Modern Library’s Writer’s Workshop, which is a rich source of inspiration and instruction for writers of all kinds.

LEARN FROM THE BEST

Over the years, I’ve learned important lessons by copying out lines, passages, even entire stories, by other writers whose work I admire and would like to emulate.

Typing Wall Street Journal features taught me the anatomy of a “nut graf,” journalese for that section of context high up in a story that tells readers what a story is about and why they should read it.

You can discover your own voice by listening to other writers. One of the best ways to listen is by copying out their words.

This practice horrifies some respected writers and teachers; write your own darn stories, they say. But if we were visual artists, would anyone look askance at visiting a museum to try and copy the paintings to see how accomplished artists used color and shadow and contrast?

I’m not talking about plagiarism. Rather, modeling is copying stories to gain a more intimate understanding of the variety of decisions that writers make to organize material, select language, and shape sentences. 

A WARNING SIGN

Now’s a good time for my one caveat about modeling lessons: Always copy the writer’s byline at the top of the story in case you get deluded and confuse someone else’s writing with your own.

Properly credited, I start typing. 

When something strikes me, I’ll start to record my observations:

Wow, notice how that long sentence is followed by a short, three-word one, stopping me in my tracks to pay attention. Varying sentence length is a good way to affect pace.

See how Carol McCabe’s award-winning leads follow a pattern? (“Cold rain spattered on the sand outside the gray house where Worthe Sutherland and his wife Channie P. Sutherland live.” “The Bicentennial tourists flowed through Paul Revere’s Mall.” “Three trailer trucks growled impatiently as a frail black buggy turned onto Route 340.”) Subject-Verb-Object. Concrete nouns, vivid action verbs. I’ve got to do that more.

Every writer, including broadcast and online writers, can profit equally from copying successful stories in their medium.

Pay attention to what the writer is doing and what effect it has on you, the reader. Effective writing is about impact and writers need to learn how to make one, using all the tools at their disposal. 

“Do not fear imitation,” says Stephen Koch. “Nobody sensible pursues an imitative style as a long-term goal, but all accomplished writers know that the notion of pure originality is a childish fantasy. Up to a point, imitation is the path to discovery and essential to growth.”

In the end, you must use your own words to become the writer you want to be, but I’ve profited from learning how other writers used theirs. You can, too.

WRITING TO SAVOR | “THE OTHER AFGHAN WOMEN,” BY ANAND GOPAL, THE NEW YORKER, SEPT. 6, 2021

When we think of Afghanistan women, our thoughts turn to those whose lives the American occupation of that nation liberated from the oppression of the Taliban. Free from the strictures of its patriarchal, theocratic rule, many shed their burkhas and head veils and ventured back into the bustling streets of Kabul, the capital. They returned to work, and the classroom as students and teachers. That’s where the media focused its attention, especially since outside the capital lay great danger. 

In “The Other Afghan Women,” published in The New Yorker, contributing writer Anand Gopal tells a story that has largely gone untold during the two decades of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan following the terror attacks of 9/11.

More than 70 percent of Afghans don’t live in cities. Women, hidden from puberty until they are grandmothers, live in shadow, concealed from the world at large and especially, journalists.

In a tour de force of immersion reporting and powerfully descriptive writing, Gopal penetrates this veil of secrecy. During a reporting trip to Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, he made contact with numerous Afghan women in villages in the Helmand Province, many speaking to a man outside their own families, let alone a Western journalist, for the first time. He did so by making an ingenious savvy end run by reaching out to grandmothers who provided him with introductions. His protagonist is Shakira, a courageous wife and mother, and force of nature, whose tragic yet brave history reveals the impossibly cruel terrors of what Afghans call “The American War.”

THE BOOK WORLD | BOOK TALK, INDIE BOOKSTORE, EARS PERKED

On Tuesday, I woke excited. My publisher, Melissa Wilson, of Networlding Publishing, and Saudia Davis, author of 33 Ways Not To Screw Up Creative Entrepreneurship, were going to interview me as part of their LinkedIn series, “Prosperity Through Publishing- Worth to Wealth,” which explores “the power of publishing that can take your career and/or business to the next level of success!”

The night before, Saudia, who owns Redwood Cove Media, let me into the studio from home so I could position myself in a way that avoided the dreadful clutter of my office. I managed to position the camera (Saudia recommended using a shoe box to put the camera high; a valuable pro tip valuable for anyone doing video calls. All that showed was the clutter of my bookshelf. If you look closely, on the top shelf of the bookcase, however, you’ll see my guiding star, the word “FOCUS” engraved on an oval stone tablet.

The interview was a blast and in a stroke of synchronicity lasted 33 minutes! Got to talk, not only about my book, but the state of journalism. So many people these days ask me about it and there’s often a skeptical tone, so I was glad to be able to point out what I say to them: that the state of journalism is strong. Journalists in newsrooms big and small are doing difficult, important, often courageous, work. The only problem is that the average person tends to conflate journalism with what they see on cable, namely talking heads spouting opinions. Journalists, on the other hand, traffic in verifiable facts. BIG DIFFERENCE.

We also chatted about the reality of book publishing. I realized I’ve written, edited, or co-edited a dozen books now. None of them have made me rich. But there are other types of profit I have enjoyed: exposure and, more importantly, community, like the one I have with you all every fortnight. I hope you’ll watch the video, and if you do happen to buy the book, I’d be very grateful if you’d leave an honest review on Amazon.

Other book news:

For fans of indie bookstores who eschew/despise the Seattle-based 800-pound gorilla, 33 Ways Not To Screw Up Your Journalism is available for sale online through Tombolo Books, a magical curated bookstore in St. Petersburg, along with my two other writing books, Writers On Writing: Inside the Lives of 55 Distinguished Writers and Editors,” and Writers on Writing: The Journal. Browse over to my page for the offerings.

And if you’re ever in St. Pete, treat yourself and make Tombolo Books, @ 2153 1st Ave S, St. Petersburg, FL 33712, a definite destination. Right next door is The Black Crow coffee shop, the perfect spot to sip and peruse your book finds.

My latest is Tracy Flick Can’t Win, novelist Tom Perrotta’s sequel to Election, which spawned the brilliant Alexander Payne-directed 1999 comedy romance starring a 23-year-old Reese Witherspoon as a high school senior desperate to win election as class president, and Matthew Broderick, as the teacher who tries to foil her plans. If you have Amazon Prime, you can watch it for free. It holds up. NSFW. NSFKids.

Ears Perked

The audio version of my new book, 33 Ways Not to Screw Up Your Journalism, narrated by yours truly, has become available at these outlets. It’s a three-hour listen, priced for a journalist’s budget. Impatiently waiting for Apple Books and especially Audible, with 200,000 books of every thinkable category the biggest and most popular audiobook service. Their quality control review can take a month.

Kobo, Walmart $5.99

Chirp $4.99

Scribd Free with trial.

Audiobooks $5.99

Audiobooks.com: $5.99

Google Play: $5.99

TIP OF THE WEEK | TO WRITE WELL, YOU MUST FIRST WRITE POORLY.

Revision, the final step in the writing process, makes muddied meaning clear. But you have to have something to revise.

Swallow the bile that rises in your throat when you think what you are writing is terrible. Keep typing, no matter how poor you think the writing is. At the creation stage, the writer is not an adequate judge. Leave it until later.

That must come from distance, either temporal (you put it aside and come back to it with a fresh eye) or physical (for journalists, making a printout is the key to freewriting and speedy revision on deadline.)

Do that and you will have tangible copy to read and respond to. Mark it up. Slash. Add. Put questions in the margins. Invariably, writers encounter surprises—a character description, the beginning of a nut graf, a potential lead or ending—in what they think is dreck. Yep, another paradox of the writing process.

HELP UKRAINIAN PARAMEDICS SAVE LIVES

Royal Hospitallers, Ukrainian's brave volunteer paramedic battalion, save lives every day. Please support them here!

BEFORE YOU GO

If there’s one person—a journalist, writer, student, teacher or coach—you think would benefit from the interviews, craft lessons, writing tips, and more that appear every two weeks in this free newsletter, please suggest they subscribe @ chipscanlan.substack.com

If you’d like to tangibly support Chip’s Writing Lessons and my work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber for $5 a month or $50 a year. Once a week, these members receive an Extras package featuring fresh interviews with leading writers and editors, excerpts from my books of writing advice, excerpts from my memoir in progress, more inspirational quotes, glimpses into the world of publishing, coaching tips and more recommended readings and listening options.

NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK AND EBOOK

Writers on Writing: Inside the lives of 55 distinguished writers and editors 

“By asking four questions to 55 of our finest writers and editors, Chip Scanlan has hosted one of the greatest writing conferences you will ever attend." - Roy Peter Clark, The Poynter Institute, “Writing Tools” 

"A marvelous book for writers, people who have a passion for writing, or simply, who want to become writers. Yet what strikes me about this book is that it is not just for writers only." - The Blogging Owl

AND

Writers on Writing: The Journal

Available on Amazon or online through Tombolo Books, a local independently-owned bookstore @ writersonwritingbooks.com

chipscan@gmail.com | +1-727-366-8119. Feel free to call. Always happy to give a free 30-minute consultation.

Thanks for reading. See you in two weeks.

May your writing go well.

Chip

Chip’s Writing Lessons is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber for $5 a month or $50 a year.

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