1. /,;4Liie 4
Reading, Listening and Writi^g
Hem.
Haw.
Okay, the hardest part is done. The rest gets easier.
At least that's the conventional wisdom.
Writing may seem like the most difficult thing in the
world, but is it? I'd wager developing the Theory of Rela-
tivity was a bit more difficult. And I hear childbirth is no
piece of cake.
But writing, now that's a chore.
Words that seem to flow like lava in
the hallway, over drinks, at the din-
ner table, evaporate when writers
stare at that blank (screen, sheet of
paper, pick your poison). If it
weren't so damn frustrating it would
befurmy.
You know what helps? Reading.
I never met an accomplished
writer who didn't spend much of
his or her spare time buried in a
book...or a magazine...or a menu.
Reading and writing go together like agony and ecstasy,
Romeo and ]uliet, Fred and Ethel.
Read prolifically, and chances are you'll write better.
Maybe not as well as those you read, but your perspective
will certainly expan4 and those first couple of words, that
elusive lead, those bon mots that immediately capture the
readex, will come a bit easier.
Read what you ask? Whatever you can get your eyes
on. A sample of my monthly magazine reading list:
c lnc,
. Entrepreneur
. Money
. Small Business Opportunities
. Wired
. e-Business Advisor
. Tennis Werkly
. Tennis Magazine
. Brill's Content
Notice anything? Not an agriculture-related publica-
tion on the list. My readers - professional farm managers,
independent crop consultants and Certified Crop Advisers
- are engaged in the business of farming, and they need
information on how to succeed in business, not how to
grow a croP.
What about your readers? Do they need to know how
to farm or how to run a business?
I also read novels, travel books, biographies, histories,
plays, poetry - anything that puts one word with another
and another and another to create coherent, logical (or
somefimes illogical) images that communicate a message.
The message doesn't matter; the process of creating it
means everything, at least to a writer.
And read Shakespeare; he still stands miles above
every other English writer, and you can learn much from
him about the art of writing.
Naturally, I also read the local newspaper front to back.
I even read USA Today, a publication I once held in con-
tempt as a headline machine similar to radio and television.
But reader habits change, and writers need to change
their habits to keep pace with their readers.
Face it; all those words that are so difficult to string
together don't mean much to most readers. They want their
reading fast, they want it relevant and they want it usefrrl.
Anything else, and chances are you've lost them. The
folks at USAToday figured that out years ago. It took some
of us writers a bit longer.
V/riting shorter is definitely not easier writing; though
fewer in number, the words gain more weight, grow more
fraught with meaning. You have to tell the same story, but
you must do it in about two-thirds the space.
Many of us probably picked magazine work because
of the extra space where we could explore in infinite
depth certain subjects and topics, and showcase our vast
vocabularies, to boot. Today's cruel irony: any story longer
than two standard magazine pages had better be Pulitzer
material, or you're minus an audience.
Another trait good writers have in abundance: the
abfity to listen.
I don't mean the morning coffee kind of listening: "Yes,
dear; that's nice, dear. Really, dear?"
Good writers lorow the difference; they know how little
they have leamed when they talk. They leam everything
when someone else talks - and they listen.
Learn how to spot the intriguing trails in an interview,
the ones that lead to the story within a story. They'll add
texture and body to your story1 but only if you listen for
them and follow them up.
Listen as much as you read...and listen as widely as
you read. Images are where you find them, and not all of
them are on the farm.
I once found a great image for a column in a Pink
Floyd song:
"Can you tell a green field/
From a cold steel rail?"
Quite a metaphor for a once-agrarian country tumed urban.
Finally, write conversationally. Treat the story as
though you were telling it to a friend over the backyard
fence. Don't go highbrow, don't go technical, don't go
overboard, unless it's an important part of the story.
Be yourself, but don't overwhelm the story. Let it flow,
just like the words that follow Hem and Haw.
There was only one Einsteiru there's only one voice
like yours.
Make it count.
-Rob Wiley
CROPDECISIONS
Rob Wiley