When others have judged our writing good, we feel successful. Since we don’t know what we don’t know that we don’t know, we may not see a need to improve our writing skills, let alone know how. That’s why we need critique groups. They bring other eyes to help us see what we haven’t seen before, but we need thick skins to accept the harsh reality that our writing isn’t perfect.
We should love critique groups for the opportunity to help others, and it’s fun to learn from other people’s mistakes instead of our own.
In mentoring sessions, common weaknesses become more apparent—often simple things that we’re embarrassed to say we hadn’t known before. Or we knew but didn’t practice the principles very well.
Here is one area where where we should continually remind ourselves:
Be Specific.
- Pull readers into the picture by saying it was an oak, mesquite, or palm, not just a tree. Saying it was a dog creates a sense of not being there. Surely, being there would make the creature mongrel, mutt, Chihuahua or Rottweiler.
- Avoid approximations. “Three-year-old Billy” is better than saying he was “about three years old.”
- Be sure the words transfer the writer’s image to the reader. If the writer doesn’t make the effort to say how far “a long way” is, readers don’t know whether it was a hundred yards or a mile.
- Replace generalities that fail the picture test. If school girls talked about “anything and everything,” what kind of picture do readers have? Give readers specifics in just a few words, and they will feel like they are part of the scene. So the girls talked about boys and the math test tomorrow morning. Anything specific is better than everything in general.
Look at the details in your writing. When are you saying too much, and when are you saying too little?
