The Power of Verbs Part One: To be or not to be
Oct 24th
When I was a college student my father, who was wonderful writer, gave me a book on writing well. That book disappeared from my shelves long ago, and I don’t remember either the name of the author or its title, but I do remember one chapter that stuck with me. It was a chapter about the power of verbs. If you had asked me at the time I would have predicted that verbs were a rather dry subject for a whole book chapter. Up until reading that chapter I hadn’t really thought much about them. I knew what they were, of course: action words or words that express a state of being. But beyond that I just used them in my writing quite unconsciously, until I read that chapter and became a convert to the power of verbs.
Why are verbs so powerful? They spice up your writing. They give your writing momentum. They speed up your sentence, or they weigh it down. Verbs force the issue, or they negotiate diplomatically. Verbs run and play, or they slink away silently. Verbs tell you where your sentence is going and what it is doing. Here’s one example of how.
The verb to be
Let’s take an example from a kind of writing I often see in my students’ papers. In this kind of writing the author relies heavily on forms of the verb to be. While the verb to be is a great verb for states of being, it doesn’t work so well if you want to make your writing lively, vivacious. It does not do, it just is. So writing that relies heavily on the verb to be usually falls flat. Here’s an example in which I have put the various forms of that verb in bold face:
I remember there was a girl named Julie Trevilian who lived on my street. I was sure I wanted to be like her. Julie was a nice girl. Her eyes were blue and her hair was long, brown, and shiny. She was tall and elegant, and she was always having fun. She was from a family that loved to eat. Every night at 6 was dinner time, and dinner was always delicious. Her family was fun. Everyone was friendly and laughed a lot. They were good at making me feel welcome. Julie was so smart and funny and her family was so friendly that I wanted to spend all of my time at her house.
This passage feels dull and lifeless. It fails to capture the reader’s imagination, in part because it’s weighed down by so many instances of the verb to be. Change the verbs to verbs of action, verbs of power, and the whole description gains impetus and comes to life. With just a simple revision this passage starts to become more engaging, even if a few instances of the verb to be remain:
I remember a girl named Julie Trevilian who lived on my street. I wanted to be like her. Julie was a nice girl. Her blue eyes sparkled and her long brown hair shone. She seemed so comfortable in her tall and elegant body, and she always had fun. Her family loved to eat, and every night at 6 they enjoyed a delicious meal. Like Julie, they knew how to have fun. They opened their home, laughed a lot, and made me feel welcome. I felt drawn to Julie’s smart and funny manner, and her family exuded such warmth that I wanted to spend all of my time at her house.
Now the passage moves along; it expresses something of the liveliness of Julie’s family because its sentences impel the reader forward—all through the power of action verbs.
So the moral of this story is simple: it’s a good writing strategy to avoid using the verb to be when other more active verbs await you, ready to step in and bring your writing to life!
Look for “The Power of Verbs Part Two,” coming soon!
My Seven Favorite Spiritual Works: An Eclectic Selection
Oct 11th
I’m a pretty voracious reader of spiritual texts, from ancient to contemporary, and I thought it would be fun to challenge myself to come up with a list of favorites. I lump some self-help books and some books on personal development under the category of spirituality as long as they seem to me to be spiritual in nature. When pondering this self-imposed challenge I realized that I do have a set of criteria that I unconsciously use when choosing which book of spiritual writing I want to sit with and learn from:
- It must be well written.
- It must have a distinctive voice and offer pleasant reading.
- It must have either a profound message or a highly practical message, and if it can combine these two qualities, that’s even better.
- It must both inspire me to change my beliefs and provide me with tools for doing so.
- It must help me know that I am more than I seem to be, that I extend beyond the boundaries of my perception.
- It must make me feel good.
- It can break all of my rules if it just gives me goose-bumps.
That said, here’s my list of (current) favorites, in no particular order:
- The Voice of Knowledge by Don Miguel Ruiz. All of Ruiz’s books combine profound wisdom with stylistic simplicity and clarity; this one just happens to be my favorite. In the Voice of Knowledge Ruiz explains how the people around us, our families, schools, churches, governments, and so on, program us with co-called knowledge of what is true, knowledge that undermines our own personal integrity and can rob us of our happiness. Far from encouraging us to feel or act likes victims of this voice of knowledge, Ruiz provides us with the means to see it for what it is and free ourselves from it.
- The Cloud of Unknowing by Anonymous. Want to have a mystical experience? Here’s you step-by-step primer on how to do so, as laid out by a 14th- century mystic who seeks to attain the experience of union with God. If you don’t like the word God, you can substitute some other word or concept that satisfies you more, but the sweet simple truth of this profound work is much like Ruiz’s teaching: knowledge won’t get you there. Coming from our integrity, what the author of the Cloud calls the heart, will! This lovely book forms the basis of the method of Christian meditation called Centering Prayer.
- The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity by Catherine Ponder. So many people are trying to practice the principles of the Law of Attraction these days. Ponder’s book gives great, practical tips for thinking and acting in positive ways in order to bring more abundance and prosperity into our lives. If you are trying to break through negative beliefs about wealth, then Ponder can help. Just consider her radical notion that, rather than being a virtue, poverty is a sin! I’ll let you read for yourself to see how she justifies that view!
- The Abundance Book by John Randolph Price. And while we’re on the subject of abundance, this short and very little book is a gem. Price teaches what he calls the principle of all-sufficiency, or the timeless principle of how to connect with the Divinity within, to one’s higher inspiration, which is based in “love, gentleness and peace,” in order to tap into the Source and manifest abundance. This little book contains an eminently practical 40-day Prosperity Plan to help you put the wisdom Price has gathered into practice.
- At Your Command by Neville Goddard. I got this little book in an e-version through Joe Vitale, and it immediately amazed me. Do you want to learn to visualize, and do you want to learn the spiritual basis behind how visualization works? Here’s the book to explain it. I found myself writing down quotation after quotation from this book in full, pondering each one daily. Here’s an example: “Look upon your desires—all of them—as the spoken words of God, and every word or desire a promise. The reason most of us fail to realize our desires is we are constantly conditioning them. Do not condition your desire. Just accept it as it comes to you. Give thanks for it to the point where you are already grateful for receiving it.”
- The Way of Chuang Tzu by Thomas Merton. This book contains the famous 20th Century Christian mystic’s versions of the famous Daoist’s enigmatical texts (Chuang Tzu is thought to have lived between 370 and 301 BCE) . I love the idea that as his spiritual life deepened Merton came to see the similarities between the truths and mysteries taught by the mystical branches of many world religions. Chuang Tzu’s writings open up a series of conundrums, riddles, and paradoxes that jog our brains and cause us to look differently at the interrelated nature of all things.
- Ask and It Is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks. I’m currently in a phase of reading book after book of the teachings of Abraham as Esther and Jerry Hicks present them. I have to admit to being a bit of a skeptic, but when I read the story of how Esther learned to channel the wisdom of Abraham, a nonphysical entity who teaches the a Law of Attraction, those goose-bumps came and stayed with me for days. This book offers complete acceptance and powerful reassurance. It teaches you how to follow your own inner guidance system in order to attain your desires. It concludes with 22 processes for how to strengthen your ability to attract all that you want into your life.
- The Gift, poems by Hafiz as presented by Daniel Landinsky, and The Glance, poems by Jelaluddin Rumi as presented by Coleman Barks. Neither of these books offers strict translations of the poems, but rather each contains what we call versions, renditions of the poems in which Barks and Landinsky make them more accessible to a contemporary audience. Some academics might take issue with this trend of creating versions of the poems of Sufi masters, but I don’t. I teach both of these books, and through Barks and Landinsky my students come to love these poets and their poetry. A few years ago a former student of mine contacted me to let me know that after being introduced to Rumi in class she now always carries a small book of his poems with her wherever she goes. Anyone who can take 13th- and 14th-century Sufi poetry and get folks reading it and loving it this much is okay in my book! These Persian poems come from the heart. They express the Islamic concept of ihsan, or doing what is beautiful as a celebration of God. And the poems are, quite simply, exquisite. And, okay, so I broke my own rule by adding books 8 and 9 with this entry!
Spiritual Writing and the Need for a Good Editor!
Oct 10th
I read a lot of books on self-help, personal growth, and spirituality, and like most spiritual writing junkies I have my favorites. I even teach some of these works from time to time. I have had first-year college students in a mysticism class read Eckhart Tolle. In that class we spend a year reading famous mystics from all religious traditions, great works of spiritual writing from The Cloud of Unknowing to The Bhagavad Gita, from The Tao Te Ching to The Way of the Bodhisattva, from Meister Eckhart to Jelaluddin Rumi. At the end of the year we turn to Tolle, who wonderfully combines many of these religious traditions in his works. But the students have just spent a year reading some amazing spiritual writers, and by the time they get to Tolle, their ears have been tuned. Though they respond well to his ideas and to the manner in which he combines spiritual traditions, they often say, ”He’s not that great a writer! His writing’s loaded with errors. It doesn’t really have style. Who edited this book, anyway?” Of course, I’m pleased that they notice and feel they can tell great writing from lesser writing!
But I also get a little wistful. “Yes, he needed a good editor,” I respond. “English is not his native language. I hope, though, that you won’t disregard his wonderful message completely because of a subject/verb agreement problem or a misplaced modifier here and there!” Inwardly I’m bemused. If students in their first year of college, students who often still have their own writing problems to contend with, notice writing problems and lack of a distinctive writing voice in a text and object that it needs a good editor in order for them to fully respect the message they see in print, that both gives me hope and makes me wonder why publishers put books out in the condition that they do.
Where was Tolle’s editor? Why did his beautiful ideas get out there in print in such a condition that my first-year students object that he needs writing help, a good book editor? Is the self-help, personal growth, and spiritual writing industry only set to make money by producing sloppy works fast, works that will be a flash in the proverbial pan? There’s a lot of personal growth/spiritual writing out there these days. It’s a booming industry. Some of it’s well written; some of it isn’t. Lots of it could use a good editor or ghostwriter, someone with the writing and editing skills to gain that work respect and increase its chances for longevity.
I get this image of many of these books sitting on a shelf alongside the classic mystical texts I teach. Some would go together well. The elegant simplicity of Don Miguel Ruiz, for example, who has found a wonderful ghostwriter in Janet Mills, would sit well beside Julian of Norwich or Teresa of Avila. Some might argue that both of these women could have used a good editor.
Teresa was a busy woman; although often quite sickly, she founded a Carmelite convent and travelled around Spain establishing others, and to top it off she was encouraged by Saint Peter of Alcantara to write about her mystical experiences. In her works she often expresses regret that she has had to dash off her spiritual writing, suggesting in effect that she knows she could have used manuscript editing time. What’s the difference, then? Perhaps it is the power and passion and deeply felt mystery that come through her writing, however scattered it is at times. Perhaps it is the deep sense of the individual voice of a spiritual seeker that comes though in all of her writings, editor or no. And though she could have used editing services to help organize her thoughts, she has a style all her own, one that comes through sans grammatical and stylistic errors. And perhaps we do have a good editor or translator to thank for that! (Since I don’t read 16th-century Spanish, I can’t say for sure!)
Because I teach the course in Mysticism, and because I read so many books in self-help, personal development, and spirituality I like to play around with these combinations of old and new, thinking about content, writing style, and voice as I do. Would Eckhart Tolle stand up well beside Meister Eckhart? How do the teachings of Abraham as channeled by Esther Hicks compare with The Bhagavad Gita? Will Zero Limits or A Course in Miracles last as long as The Cloud of Unknowing? And can anything written today even begin to compare with The Tao Te Ching or the writings of that other great Daoist, Chaung Tzu? Some readers may cringe at the thought of some of these combinations, but I see them as playful, intriguing; they set my musings off in new directions. Although I also think I know the answer to the question of what will last!
Have You Seen “The Ghost Writer”?
Oct 10th
Have you seen The Ghost Writer? The movie stars Ewan McGregor as a young ghost writer, or ghost, who gets hired by a former British Prime Minister, a chilling role played by Pierce Brosnan, to finish ghostwriting his memoirs. I find the movie fun in part because of what it suggests about the nature of ghostwriting. Directed by Roman Polanski (and based on a novel by Robert Harris), the movie conveys a Hollywood version of the ghostwriting relationship; the former Prime Minster Andrew Lang hires a young ingénue writer to write a book of his memoirs, and in so doing draws said ingénue into a world of mystery, intrigue, and serious danger. The people who inhabit Lang’s world, characters from his present and his past, are contained, secretive, and manipulative; each one of them seems to have secrets that Lang’s book may reveal, and thus each one seems to have an agenda to push, either subtly or overtly, with Lang’s ghost writer. It’s a sinister and bleak world, as sinister as the dark clouds and cold skies that, not surprisingly, overshadow the whole film.
And Lang himself is secretive and evasive, choosing to avoid discussing certain topics with his ghost, flying off into rages or acting paternalistic at the mention of others. The ghost writer (tellingly, we never learn the real name of McGregor’s character), finds early on that he needs to do his own detective work, that he can’t trust his esteemed client to give him the full story that will make writing a book possible.
It all makes for a good movie, one in which Manohla Dargas of The New York Times claims Polanski has given us “pulpy fun” that is “irresistible.” But, apart from all that mystery and intrigue, does the film depict what a ghostwriting relationship is really like? It could be that if the client is some big celebrity like Lang, someone who is looking to publish memoirs that will create a buzz and become an immediate best seller, then perhaps there is some truth to the portrayal. Lang’s a busy man, one hounded by many people from many directions for many reasons. He needs a simple business-like relationship with a professional ghost writer who will keep the interview time to a minimum, work efficiently, accept constantly shortened deadlines, ask the right questions, avoid asking the wrong questions (whoops—his ghost doesn’t stick to this one!), churn out the pages, and get him on the best seller list fast. The quality and integrity of the end product is clearly not at issue for Lang; it’s the obligatory Prime Minister’s memoir; it’s the chance to reinforce his political persona and re-present his good-guy mask to posterity.
Some ghostwriting relationships are like this, I’m sure. You can find web sites for large ghostwriting companies, companies that gear their ghostwriting services to clients whose needs and preferences for writing a book are similar to Lang’s. My own preference as a ghost writer, however, is to create a more personal relationship, one in which I negotiate with my client directly, one in which my client and I communicate thoroughly about that client’s goals for book writing, and one in which I take time to learn my client’s individual voice. And though I am a professional writer who is committed to meeting the deadlines we agree upon at the price I give in my estimate, I also work to create a pleasant and relaxed sense of give and take in the process of interaction between us. To my mind, writing a good book should be a process where mind and soul meet, coming together to enrich both the writer and the reader. My ghostwriting services are about creating that mix. That’s why I do it!
The Pleasures of Teaching Writing
Oct 5th
The truth is that there is a lot of bad writing out there passing as good writing, and the truth is that a lot of people who think they can write, can’t. Lots of teachers don’t teach writing well; they neglect the rules of grammar and style. Maybe they themselves never knew these rules to begin with.
I once taught a group of college students, English majors all, in an education class called Teaching English in the Secondary Schools. The real Education Professor was on leave that term, and the Education Department needed someone to offer the course, so they asked me (I’m in the English Department). I had some lovely students in that class—eager young women (so it happened) who wanted very much to go out and be good teachers of writing and literature–but every last one of them was thoroughly intimidated by the idea of teaching writing, and teaching grammar in particular. Frankly, not one of them was a very good writer, and none of them knew her English grammar all that well. The students admitted that they themselves had not been taught much grammar in middle or high school, and when they were taught grammar it was boring, so they tuned out. So, we went at it, and I offered extra class sessions, giving them writing help, teaching them writing skills, and building their confidence in the rules of grammar as well.
The last time I was taught grammar was in the eighth grade, and I have to admit I forgot many grammar rules I had learned by the time I got to graduate school. As an undergraduate I made it through Middlebury College as an English major because I had a good ear for language and a natural flair for writing and ideas, not because my grammar, mechanics, and style were top notch (though they weren’t bad, either). And in graduate school (I went to the University of Virginia) no one taught us to write well. We were already supposed to know that part. In fact, were expected to be experts in teaching the writing process and to go right out there and teach Freshman Composition with very little to no advanced preparation. It was not until I started teaching at the college level myself that I realized I needed to hit the style and grammar books, to get some writing help and re-learn the rules of grammar myself, if I wanted to teach writing skills effectively. I’ve never regretted the extra time I put in cultivating those writing skills. There’s a certain satisfaction in cleaning up one’s own messy prose and in teaching others how to do so.
Giving others writing help, helping others learn to write well–something about it gives me great pleasure. I love sitting down with a willing student, figuring out what writing help she needs, devising a series of manageable steps to help her improve, putting in the time, and seeing the gradual transformation take place. I’ve been teaching writing and literature for 20 years now, and it still hasn’t gotten old. When a student learns to write well, learns the craft of it, then turns in a paper and knows that he’s made the words work for him, I know I’ve picked the right job!
