Today’s topic is what I refer to as my laundry day reminders. It doesn’t require a massive explanation – these are the reminders I read on laundry day while waiting between cycles. (Or at least, in theory, because in practice I don’t think I’ve read them for the last few loads. If this forgetfulness continues into next year, I may reconsider how to best get myself to read these on a regular basis).
These reminders are on my laundry day list because I don’t think I get the same benefit from checking these each day as I do with my daily reminders. This is open to argument and I think I will soon do a full review of both lists to see if I have everything in the right place. My review will be based on this consideration – should I read it everyday or once every other week?
Let’s have a closer look.
Rules of thumb for writing
Writing doesn’t – and shouldn’t – have a set of hard and fast rules. However, there are some basics I like to keep in mind just so I avoid known pitfalls and stumbling blocks. The following list contains some general tips that help me avoid these troublesome situations.
Stuck? Write the most important idea first
I find myself writing without a clear purpose more often than my readers might expect. This reminder helps me refocus through the lens of simple question – what am I trying to say?
No outlines, sketch instead
I’ve discover that 'outline' is another word for ‘not writing’. It also often turns out that once I start writing, I realize new things that render my original outline moot. A sketch is much better because it motivates me to get started without restricting my instincts for exploration within the work.
Verb ‘to’ verb is no good... and nouns!
This note refers to two separate reminders. The first comment came in after I noticed a tendency to link two verbs with a ‘to’ where one verb essentially made the same point as the other. I wish I’d kept a list of these, honestly, partly because I’ve written plenty of stupid phrases I'd love to share and partly because I can’t come up with any good examples at the moment.
Let’s go with 'failure to include'. What does this expression really say? It’s basically the same as 'not include', and we all know what it means to 'not include' - it means exclude. Nice and easy, right?
The second reminder comes at the end because that’s where it goes – the basic point is to end every sentence with a noun (!). I’ve found this very helpful not necessarily for writing a good sentence (because a sentence can be rubbish despite a strong ending) but for flagging a bad sentence – if a sentence ends with a verb, I probably can improve it.
This note also helped me indirectly during job interviews. Specifically, by remembering to end sentences with a strong noun, I was able to convey when I was done speaking to my interviewers. In certain cases, I would linger briefly on strong nouns within my answer to build up the idea that I was most likely to eventually stop my answer on a noun (!!).
Express shock and rage and grief through meticulously detailed observation
For me, this was a rare case of ‘easier done than said’. I found that explaining my feelings piece-by-piece often helped clarify my underlying reaction. This also tended to make for better reading than merely “boo-hoo, I’m sad.”
It’s also a good way to shift the onus on the reader from empathizing to comprehension. I suspect emotional writing demands compassionate understanding while a measured, exhaustive approach compels the reader to fully grasp the elements being described by the author.
When an ending appears, grab it
I’ve put together hundreds of terrible endings on TOA to know the precious value of a good ending. Whenever I’ve written a good ending, it almost always appears on the page before I learn of its existence. It hides out for a little while (sometimes in a clever place like the first paragraph) and waits there until I go back for my belated discovery. I then focus on editing the rest of the piece until the whole thing works within the frame established by the discovered ending.
(Editor's note - if I were any good at this, we would end it here, but ALAS, laundry takes a few more minutes. Onward!)
Rules of thumb for proofreading
These rules are less important now that I have a few years of experience. However, I still find these three concepts helpful from time to time:
-Uhh, adverb?
-Is this pronoun clear?
-A subject must do things!
My guess is that the first and third lines are not so important anymore to have on the list. In general, I’m happy with my adverbs and tend to keep the subject involved in the action. The pronoun one remains a point of emphasis – it’s astonishing to me how often I’ll open a ‘finished’ work only to find myself in total confusion over how my he’s, she’s, and they’s refer back to the various people mentioned in the writing.
The top five regrets of hospice patients...
-The moment you lose your health, you lose the ability to follow your dreams
-Cut out everything you can leave behind so you are not income dependent
-Learn to express your feelings
-Stay in touch with friends and reach back out to those who reach out to you
-Pretending to be someone else defines your happiness on someone else’s terms
I read these every two weeks for no clear reason. It’s not like this is bad advice, it’s more that I don’t get much regular use from these notes. It might also be that I’m simply past the point where I am in clear daily violation of any of these principles. I think I’ll keep it on the sheet for now, but if a better list comes around I’ll probably make the change.
“You don’t judge a civilization by its riches, but by how it treats its vulnerable,” Dr. Green said. “I think this is a mark of our humanity.”
I liked this quote when I read it but I do see some limitations. Like with any high-level quote, it’s hard to make direct use of its main idea. I also hear ‘vulnerable’ used a lot more frequently these days to the point where Dr. Green’s main idea might be getting lost a little bit – let’s say his idea of ‘vulnerable’ doesn’t really apply to any of my neighbors yet those are the people I’m most likely to hear talk about their vulnerability.
Still, overall I’ve found this a very helpful reminder. The challenge is remembering that civilizations are a sum of their individuals' actions. So, for now, I’ll continue doing what I can with the vulnerable around me (yes, even you, good neighbor).
“Fight” is not “fighting.” Fight is never giving up. Gretzky, Orr, Richard, Lemieux, Lafleur — they were great fighters. They fought with their head, hands, legs, will, and need to be special, and rarely with their fists. The toughest players aren’t those who hit but those who are willing to be hit, to fight their way into open ice, to fight their way to the net, to fight expectation and disappointment to score the game-changing goal.
I like to end with this quote. It’s proven a little too true over the years. What does it mean to never give up? I think it means carrying with you every reason you’ve ever had to give up, to accept the huge weight of that, and still
I love the quote in its entirety but the last line really brings it all together – to fight expectation and disappointment to score the game-changing goal. What can be accomplished when you’ve just fallen short? Never giving up means asking that question, over and over, and not until until you’ve found the answer - you keep going until you no longer have the question.
