Here’s my original article for Elegance.
This is a
topic I’ve wanted to write about for a long time. Ironically, the words needed to explain the
concept kept the column from being elegant.
So I did what all artists do. I
found a way to say a lot in a little space.
Enjoy,
Mark Rosewater
[NOTE: EACH OF THE ABOVE FIFTY WORDS IS HYPERLINKED. BELOW IS THE FIFTY HYPER LINKS. THE HEADERS SHOULDN’T BE ON THE LINKED
PAGE. I’M JUST INCLUDING THEM SO YOU
KNOW WHAT EACH LINK IS.]
ELEGANCE
Merriam-Webster’s
Collegiate Dictionary has five definitions for elegance:
• refined grace or dignified propriety
• tasteful richness of design or
ornamentation
• dignified, gracefulness or restrained
beauty of style
• scientific precision, neatness and
simplicity
• something that is elegant
The common elements appear to be
dignity, simplicity, and taste.
THIS
Elegance requires thinking, but it also
requires feeling. Elegant prose is
judged by how it makes the reader feel. It needs to generate a sense of calm
that puts the reader at ease. Everything
in your writing should feel as if it was carefully positioned to create the
proper effect.
IS
Pound for pound, the writer’s greatest
writing tool is the verb. Nouns add
substance and adjectives add flourish, but it’s the verb that drives the
sentence. Choose a strong, descriptive
verb and the sentence has flair and purpose.
Choose a weak one and the sentence lacks any sense of drama.
A
Here’s a little game to test an
elegance relevant skill (based on an old game called Inklings). Randomly choose a noun. Try to convey that noun to the other players
using the least number of letters possible.
You’ll be surprised how much you can communicate in just a few letters.
TOPIC
One of the greatest stumbling blocks to
elegance is the inability to choose a single focus. Elegance requires simplicity. Simplicity requires a single purpose of
thought. This means that elegance starts
before you write a single word. A good
sculptor must know his image before he picks up his chisel.
I’VE
One of the common misconceptions of
elegance is that it requires a writer to be fancy. Elegance though is more
about familiarity than formality. You shouldn’t be afraid of friendlier
language such as slang or contractions, assuming that such language adds an
element of ease rather than one of laziness.
WANTED
An important element of elegance is a
sense of passion. Brevity does not mean
pulling away emotionally from words, but rather the opposite. When you find yourself limited to fewer
words, you must pack each individual word with extra emotional punch. You are not reducing your message, simply
your messenger.
TO
A good tool in understanding elegance
is studying poetry. Poetry is the most
concise of all written art forms. It
strives to maximize impact while minimizing expression. Each word carries the burden of evoking some
essence of the poet’s message. If it cannot carry its own weight, it is
excised.
WRITE
To be an elegant writer, you have to
become a student of prose. You have to
study the mechanics of language to understand how it can be shaped. Once you have learned how to transfer the
feeling in your head into meaningful words, you are on the path to elegance.
ABOUT
Be careful not to fall in love with
ambiguity. While intoxicating in its
beauty, it is the enemy of elegance.
Remember, the goal is not to make the reader struggle for comprehension. Rather it is to lead them to the obvious
conclusion. Elegance should be used to illuminate, not confuse.
FOR
Elegant prose requires connecting with
your reader. To do this, you have to
understand who that reader is. Nothing
should come before this task. It needs
to be done before writing can begin. I like to compare this to planning a
trip. Maps are useless until you know
your destination.
A
Another major key to elegance is the
understanding of the importance of the tiniest detail. Just as a chain is only as strong as its
weakest link, a piece of prose is only as tight as its messiest detail. A good
writer doesn’t stop at the nouns, verbs and adjectives.
LONG
Don’t confuse elegance with
brevity. Elegant things are short not
because they have to be but because the difficulty to craft an elegant piece of
prose combined with the limitations of time forces writers to be brief. Elegant novels, for example, do exist, but
they are few and far between.
TIME
To quote Roman orator (and letter
writer) Marcus T. Cicero, “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter
letter.”
Simplicity takes more time not
less. Anyone can get a point across with
ten thousand words. But a true artist
can do it in ten (or possibly fifty).
IRONICALLY
Irony is a potent tool for
commentary. Its genius lies in the fact
that it comments not on what is, but rather on what isn’t. Like all good humor, irony makes you laugh. But like the best type of humor, it also
makes you think. It’s both funny and funny.
THE
Elegance in writing is about more than words. Equally
important is how the words are woven together.
Tempo, pacing, rhythm – these are the tools that set the mood for the
piece. Try reading aloud your text. The natural beat of language is more suited
for the ear than the eye.
WORDS
To realize the power of words, you must
first understand how they work. Art is expressive; words are connotative. That is, words draw their power from their
ability to extract different ideas from different people. A circle is a circle, but the concept of
“scary” varies from person to person.
NEEDED
Elegance is not the result of any one
attribute. It is the combination of
numerous factors coming together in harmony.
This is why it’s such a hard skill to master. Most people can pat their head or rub their
tummy. But put them together and it’s
not quite so easy.
TO
An elegant piece of prose needs to hit the reader at a gut
level. Often they won’t know exactly why
they like it, but they will recognize that something about the piece moves
them. There are many types of writing
where subtlety is lost. Elegant writing
isn’t one of them.
EXPLAIN
There are many ways for you to explain
an idea. The most elegant one though is
not through definition but by example.
By connecting your idea to one already known by the reader, you’re
leaving the work of teaching to someone in the past. Education is hard. Comparison is easy.
THE
If writing is like building a house,
the structure is like the foundation.
Its design will dictate how the house is built. If it’s faulty, no amount of fancy brickwork
will undo the damage. So take the time
to ensure your structure is building the kind of prose you want.
CONCEPT
Never underestimate the power of a
concept. An important part of elegance
is condensing big ideas into little words.
This is far from an easy task. It
often takes a genius an entire lifetime to create a truly innovative
concept. So take advantage of all their
hard work and inspiration.
KEPT
A common barrier to elegance is the
belief that only one way will work.
Often a writer is unable to abandon a beloved piece of prose even when
evidence demonstrates otherwise. If
something doesn’t add to the larger sense of the piece, you have to learn to
let it go.
THE
Readers notice things at a minute level
far beyond their mind’s ability to interpret.
This means that although they may not consciously notice many of your
tiny details, they will do so unconsciously. Aesthetics teach us that it’s this
unconscious structure that will determine whether or not it feels “right”.
COLUMN
All communicators, whether through
speaking or print, need to find a voice.
A voice provides familiarity and it teaches the listener or reader how
to more quickly absorb the information.
Elegance is all about the conservation of ideas. Having a pre-learned voice to guide you is a
very valuable tool.
FROM
I’ve spent some time talking about
understanding your reader. But there is
one more person who is even more important to understand – yourself. Writing is
about sharing your ideas with others. If
you haven’t spent the time to figure out what you think, how can you possibly
communicate it?
BEING
“A picture is worth a thousand words.”
Or so the saying goes. What the cliché forgets to mention is how
many words a single word is worth. For
example, take the word “being”. To capture the essence of what “being” represents
is tens of thousands of words if not more.
ELEGANT
What is the value of being elegant? Why
should you care? Elegance adds aesthetics.
It evokes poetry. It grants
beauty. Elegant prose draws the reader
closer because it gives them something to not just learn but to admire. Good prose stimulates the head, but elegant
prose resonates in the heart.
SO
Who, what, where, when, how - all
important questions. But for a writer
they pale next to why. If you don’t
understand the reasoning beneath the surface, the other details are irrelevant. The act of elegance is cementing the
why. It’s taking the purpose and
engraining it into the piece.
I
Elegance is a very personal thing. If something doesn’t resonate with you,
there’s no way for it to resonate with your reader. Writing is an art, not a science. There is no rulebook for how things must be
done. If your instincts are telling you
that something isn’t working, listen.
DID
An important tool in your toolbox is
time. Elegance cannot be rushed. Mental
ruts only get deeper the harder you focus on them. Make sure to work time into your schedule so
you are able to walk away from your writing.
An hour next week is worth a day today.
WHAT
Don’t let attention to detail pull you
away from having a larger sense of what you’re writing. Take this column as an example. While I spent a lot of time fine tuning each
entry I never lost sight of the effect they created when all the entries were
put together.
ALL
Elegance requires taking a holistic
view of writing. Every word, every
sentence, every paragraph is a piece in a larger puzzle. It’s not enough to
understand the impact of a single element. You must understand how any two
elements interact if you want to understand the potency of your text.
ARTISTS
Elegance and art are very
intertwined. Both seek to achieve a
similar goal: to illuminate and inspire with a conservation of expression. If you’re trying to be elegant, I think it
helps to think of yourself as an artist.
The instinct for the latter mirrors the needs of the former.
DO
An important part of any writing is
understanding the feeling you’re trying to evoke. And then realizing what mechanic tools you
have available to evoke that feeling.
Diction, verb tense, sentence length, alliteration, word flow, phonetic
juxtaposition – each of these will control the mood and tone of your piece.
I
A writer’s life is the ultimate fodder. Don’t be ashamed to plumb your own
experiences. You understand them deeper
and more personally than anyone else. No
painter would refuse to use his finest paints.
And, as a bonus, by using your own experiences, you will become better
educated about yourself.
FOUND
Don’t forget that the act of revealing
is also an act of exploration. Don’t be
afraid if you learn more than the reader you’re trying to educate. Writing is not an exact science. (Or even an exact art.) Often you will find that the road to
salvation has a fork.
A
Your future is paved with your past. If you want to learn how to grow as a writer,
you need to look back at what you’ve written.
With time and a detached eye, your will find your mistakes become
clearer. Remember that it’s failure, not
success, that bests drives education.
WAY
The problem with looking for a single
solution is that you’ll never find more than one. And the first one isn’t always the best. But if you’re open to the possibility that
every problem has an infinite number of answers, you’ll have the freedom of
choosing the solution you want.
TO
Sentences are filled with freeloaders. Because writers seem to love overwriting. (I
include myself in this camp.) Make sure
to create time for the editor side of you to prune unnecessary words. If a word can be excised without any harm to
the sentence, it has no right being there.
SAY
I’m spending my time today talking
about elegance in prose, but most of what I’m saying is applicable in
speech. The key difference is that prose
has less defining attributes like appearance or tone. The key to elegant speech is making people
focus on the words rather than everything else.
A
It’s ironic that something designed to be so simple can be
so complex. But that, my faithful
readers, is the joy (and mystery) of elegance.
Like an onion, elegance has numerous layers that reveal themselves as
you slowly peel them away. Oh yeah, and
it can sometimes make you cry.
LOT
An interesting exercise is to look at
each word you’re using and think about how much content is loaded in that
word. Then explore what other words
exist that fulfill the same role but with added content. Once you’ve found the word you can’t best,
move onto the next word.
IN
A good way to get better at understanding elegance is to
look for it in every day life. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised where and
how often you find it. Study each
example carefully and try to see if you can put your finger on what makes it
work.
A
Writing is a shared endeavor. No one owns the words. If someone uses a technique that works,
there’s no shame in borrowing it. Like
science, writing creates technology that’s brought back to the group to spur
further advancements. Elegance is hard
enough to accomplish without refusing to use the toolbox.
LITTLE
How big should a piece of text be if
you want it to be elegant? The answer is
as big as it needs to be – and not a word more.
Just think of it as playing the game Jenga. Keep pulling words out of
your prose until it collapses.
SPACE
One of the most important lessons in
art is learning the value of negative space, the idea that the eyes are equally
drawn to what isn’t there. Prose has a
very similar quality. When writing pay
careful attention to what you aren’t saying.
Often it will speak the
loudest volume.
ENJOY
For some reason people tend to equate
dignity with seriousness. And as such
they come to the false conclusion that elegance has no room for humor. Ironic as humor is one of the most elegant of
styles. A good joke is no longer than is
necessary to do its job.
MARK
As is always
true when I head off the beaten path, I am curious to hear your feedback. What did you think of this article? Was it entertaining? Was it educational? Did you actually read all
fifty links? And if not, why not?
Tell me. Inquiring mind wants to know.
ROSEWATER
I couldn’t end this week’s column
without my trademark closing. I mean,
how inelegant would that be?
Join me next week when I go from being a letter man to a Letterman.
Until then, may you learn to appreciate
now just the “what” but the “how” and “why”.
Mark Rosewater
markrosewater