The other day, I was looking in some of my Daddy’s old writing books that I keep on my shelf and found a little clipping stuck inside. The clipping was about writing and writing precise.
Writing
The written word
Should be clean as bone,
Clear as light,
Firm as stone.
Two words are not
As good as one.
–Anonymous
It is nice to see my Daddy’s influence on my writing from time to time. He was a man who spoke little, but when he did, it was precise and full of wisdom. This taught me to speak less but more direct. He studied writing and sought to be more precise and clean. I see a little quote like this one, and see how right he was.
There is an art to writing less. Many times, we pride ourselves on the thickness of documents or how long we can talk; but the better gauge of our writing is how much information is being heard and understood. It takes hard work and humility to chop off the non-essentials in our writing to communicate the exact words and ideas we are trying to convey. Much like a sculptor and their work—they too must cut their project down until their work is just right.
Several years ago, I began listening to TED.com speeches—somewhat in their early stages. They would have some of the greatest minds and speakers of our age on the TED speaker’s platform. Each would only speak 18 minutes. I asked myself then; “if the greatest minds of our time can speak for 18 minutes on their topic, why should I even try to speak longer when I preach?”
The poem is a good reminder to write shorter and more precise; a lesson to all of us who write.