Writing a column

Our last two assignments are to write columns. We heard from Lisa Gray today about voice and form. Voice usually comes from writing in a relaxed way, though some columnists can be shrill, demanding, pungent, sardonic, ironic, sad, comic. The most important thing is write in a way that is natural to you. Don’t try too hard. That’s not easy to do. The standard advice is to imagine you are sitting with a friend and telling her a story. 

Form can be tricky.  Lisa talked about having a form in mind before she starts writing. The story might be a profile, or a narrative, or a list or an essay. It might be about finding a big idea in a place, or finding a place to express a big idea. But what’s interesting is that she has a sense of the form before she starts writing. 

For you columns, write about something that’s important to you, something you have knowledge and interest in. You need to write it with details. Interviewing someone would be nice. Visiting a place would be good. Stories are about people acting in a time and place. 

My main advice is: don’t write about abstractions and big ideas. Write about people and places and most of all about people doing things: pitchers pitching badly or well, architects designing poorly or well, and so on. 

Write about something you care about.

And, find models for writing. Read some columnists. Who writes well about what you want to write about? Notice how they do what they do. It will always involve details. Take Ken Hoffman’s column in today’s Chronicle. It’s about beating Robert Horry in a backyard game of HORSE. He salts the story with details about the backyard conditions that help him win, about how they had to shoot through branches, or from the edge of the barbeque pit,  and the rim was loose, and so forth. Lots of details make the piece work. Whatever you are writing about, be observant. Put lots of details in the piece.