What are the fundamental qualities of good writing?
Many years ago, as a brand new student teacher, I discovered at the last moment that I would be teaching creative writing to at-risk teens
at an alternative high school. Luckily, I stumbled across a text called WRITING PROCESS ACTIVITIES KIT by Mary Lou Brandvik. This curriculum (now long out of
print) promotes utilizing steps of the writing process (prewriting, drafting,
revising, and presenting), and emphasizes four key qualities of good writing.
The book focuses primarily on writing personal narratives
(true short stories from students’ own lives), but these fundamental qualities
apply to many types of writing, and definitely to writing fiction. I learned so
much teaching these qualities to student writers. And now that I am teaching
again, it’s a continual refresher course as I witness how powerful writing can
be when it exhibits these qualities.
Have a guess—what are four fundamental qualities of good
writing?
Focus
One is focus. In
writing personal narratives, students are encouraged to focus on one particular
time, experience, memory, and to make the reader “see” it. Instead of vague
generalizations such as, “I love my mom and I’m really going to miss her,”
focusing on a particular moment and experience can produce something like this
brief passage from one my favorite YA novels, ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS, by
Stephanie Perkins:
My mother lingers
behind. “You’ll have a wonderful year here,” she says. “I just know it.” I bite
my lip to keep it from quivering, and she sweeps me into her arms. I try to
breathe. Inhale. Count to three. Exhale. Her skin smells like grapefruit body
lotion.
Focusing on this small moment allows the reader to
experience it right along with the main character, and to feel what she is
feeling.
Specific Details
Another quality of good writing that is beautifully illustrated
by the above passage is use of specific
details. Specific verb choices such as “lingers” and “sweeps” help us
picture the scene. Specific details make characters, worlds, thoughts, and
emotions come alive. Bonus points for use of sensory details, which are specific details pertaining to the
perceptions of our five senses—not just the sense of sight, which most of us tend
to naturally rely on and use most frequently in our writing. Including details
that the other senses perceive—such as the scent of “grapefruit body lotion”
can have a powerful impact.
Showing
A third quality of good writing, one that is often discussed
and sometimes causes confusion for fiction writers, is showing, rather than telling. Writing that is focused and uses
specific details already has a high probability of showing, not telling. Writing
that shows puts a picture in the
reader’s mind, engages the reader, and makes them feel emotions right along
with the characters(s) in the story. In the passage above from ANNA AND THE
FRENCH KISS, specific details about Anna’s body language convey that she is on
the verge of tears without ever having to name an emotion. Often if we check
our writing for words that name emotions, such as happy, angry, or jealous, we
can find opportunities to replace these words and show the reader what the character is feeling, using specific
details, rather than naming that emotion. Similarly, checking writing for
“filter words”—such as think, feel,
wonder, remember—can help us find places where we can show the reader our character’s thoughts and feelings, rather than
telling the reader about them. This is not to say that these filter words
should never appear in a manuscript,
but that they may signal places where we can make our writing better, stronger,
more powerful by showing rather than telling.
Honesty
Finally, a quality of good writing is honesty. The idea of honesty in writing—particularly honesty in
fiction—often caused confusion and discussion in my classroom. No, honest writing does not mean that
everything one writes must be factual or that one must record events and
dialogue exactly as they occur. So, how
can a fictional story be honest? By expressing honest thoughts, feelings, and
behavior that is true to the human
experience. Even in way-out-of-reality sci fi and fantasy, writing is often
at its most powerful because of honesty. And
moments when we convey true, honest thoughts, feelings, or behaviors—ones that
are not pretty or heroic or glamorous—are
often the moments in a novel that evoke the most powerful emotions, or the
biggest laughs. Those honest expressions of humanity are what readers connect
with most strongly. We recognize our own human frailties and flaws and relate
to them, sympathize and empathize with them. And this can lead to a powerful,
unforgettable connection with a character and their story.
In this passage from another one of my YA favorites, ELEANOR AND PARK by Rainbow Rowell, Park realizes something unflattering about himself:
Park rolled onto his stomach and pressed
his face into his pillow. He’d thought he was over caring what people thought
about him. He’d thought that loving Eleanor proved that.
But he kept finding
new pockets of shallow inside himself. He kept finding new ways to betray her.
This honest recognition
of ugly qualities within himself feels so real, so authentic, so believable,
and it makes the reader connect with him powerfully and makes his love for
Eleanor feel even more authentic and strong. No wonder ELEANOR AND PARK is
loved by so many readers.
Remembering and continually refreshing our awareness of
these four fundamental qualities of good writing—focus, specific details,
showing-rather-than-telling, and honesty—can help make our writing not only
good, but powerful.
Please comment below if you have thoughts or questions on qualities of good writing and how to put them into practice!
