“The gulf between spoken and written English today is probably greater than it has ever been in the past.”

PART 2: TOOLS OF THE TRADE (1)

If you decide to do a little carpentry around the house, you'll probably need, at the very least, a screwdriver, some screws and a saw. You'll also need some idea of how to use them. Most people will have seen this done, and start from there, though skill comes with practice. If you have little idea of how to use tools, though, you're well-advised to consult a manual.

So why are there so many people who decide to write, without possessing either the knowledge or the tools needed to do it?

Wait a minute, I hear you say. I can speak English fluently; I do it every day. I don't talk like some hick from the backwoods, either. So I know English, and I can write it. Right?

Well, I'm not saying you can't. If you have learned to write, then you can. (There is more than one way of learning to write, which I'll get to later.) But the fact is, just because you can speak English, doesn't mean you can write it— at least, not sufficiently well to produce a good story or book.

(Believe me, I know. When I started out, I thought I knew enough already; the more I went on, the more I found I didn't.)

The gulf between spoken and written English today is probably greater than it has ever been in the past. But, you may say, I intend to write a story in the first person, using colloquial language. So then that's OK, isn't it?

Sorry, but— no. There are authors who do this, but in order to do it well they have to know their stuff. If you simply write down the great story your mate told you in the pub, word for word, it won't work on paper. Speech is repetitive, sometimes it leaves things out and often it puts too much in. For writing to have impact, it has to be done in a more concise and ordered way.

A clever writer can make his writing appear like everyday speech— in fact, most good writers do this when they write a conversation. But if you analyse, it's not exactly the way real people speak. It's the writer's skill that makes you think it is.

Yes, you can write something in colloquial English, even dialect, if it suits your purpose. But this is actually harder to do— convincingly— than writing standard English. The bottom line is, you can only know how to bend or break the basic rules if you understand what those rules are.

I'm afraid there are no short cuts. Every skill has to be learned.

Continued »»