model Archives - Wylie Communications, Inc. https://www.wyliecomm.com/tag/model/ Writing workshops, communication consulting and writing services Mon, 26 Dec 2022 07:31:22 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://www.wyliecomm.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/cropped-wci-favico-1-32x32.gif model Archives - Wylie Communications, Inc. https://www.wyliecomm.com/tag/model/ 32 32 65624304 How do you read like a writer? https://www.wyliecomm.com/2022/10/how-do-you-read-like-a-writer/ https://www.wyliecomm.com/2022/10/how-do-you-read-like-a-writer/#respond Sat, 15 Oct 2022 17:30:22 +0000 https://www.wyliecomm.com/?p=26523 Read for technique, not just for information and entertainment

Years ago, I ran across this passage Stephen Schiff wrote about Australian film director Fred Schepisi for The New Yorker:

As Schepisi talks, his hands play along: they’re the nipping boat, they’re the foaming river; when they clap, they’re the waterfall.

… Read the full article

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]]> Read for technique, not just for information and entertainment

Years ago, I ran across this passage Stephen Schiff wrote about Australian film director Fred Schepisi for The New Yorker:

How do you read like a writer?
Don’t just read as a reader. Read as a writer. Image by fizkes
As Schepisi talks, his hands play along: they’re the nipping boat, they’re the foaming river; when they clap, they’re the waterfall. He’s not a tall man, but his billowing midriff and cowboy swagger convey an impression of size. His hair is long and lank and strawberry blond, and he’s currently making one of his periodic stabs at a beard: it’s growing in little red islands.

Schepisi is fifty-three now, but his frisky, ingenuous demeanor makes him seem much younger. He has a great, probing snout and merry little eyes, and these things, along with an enormous, face-splitting grin, put you in mind of a dolphin inviting you in for a splash.

Later, I interviewed a startup president whose gestures reminded me of Schiff’s Schepisi. I noted the entrepreneur’s hand movements and wrote this lead:

As Jeff McMurphy speaks, his hands move along: They spread, and they’re the Tandem computer; they arc, and they’re the ISDN line. When they meet, they’re the relationship between McMurphy’s company and its clients.

When McMurphy gets excited, his hands move faster. And when he talks about using technology to help people work better, easier and faster, they move very fast, indeed.

It’s definitely not Schiff — today, I shudder at the verb move — but it’s a whole lot better than it would have been without Schiff.

Don’t just read as a reader.

To model the masters, make sure you’re not just reading as a reader.

Readers read for information and entertainment. Writers read for information and entertainment, too. But they also read for something else: technique.

Another writer might introduce you to a new way of crafting a headline, mastering a metaphor, structuring a story or describing gestures.

How do you read as a writer? Every time you read your favorite books or a piece of creative writing you love, focus on technique, not just the story. You’ll learn to read for writing, not just for pleasure and information.

How do you separate your reader from your writer so you can see the technique?

  • Move from your pleasure-reading spot. I do my writer-reading on planes and at my desk. I read as a reader on my couch or in bed. Read the book or other piece in the right spot.
  • Before you start reading, gather the right tools. Reading like a writer used to take highlighters, pencils and sticky notes. Now I use my Kindle’s clippings and notes features to capture great passages and write myself notes about them.
  • Don’t get swept away. The problem with reading as a writer is that when you read the good stuff, you can get lost in the prose. When you feel this happening, force yourself to snap out of it and focus again on technique.

I never would have remembered Schiff’s passage when I needed it if I’d read it only as a reader. But because I had my writer hat on — because I noticed and studied the technique — I was able to take Schiff’s approach into my toolkit.

Create a clip file.

While you’re reading, look for passages to save and study. Every time you hear yourself saying, “I wish I’d written that,” “that” goes into your clip file.

The result will be an archive of tantalizing twists of phrase, powerful plays on words and stunning snippets of storytelling. Then, when you need to write a creative passage, you can dip into your clips and riff off of one of your favorites.

One of the passages in my clip file is:

After getting steamed in a sauna, soaked in a whirlpool, kneeded from head to toe, massaged by warm water jets, scrubbed with scented exfoliating creams, rubbed with custom-blended oils, wrapped in warm towels, and otherwise buffed, polished, creamed, and swaddled, even the most stressed-out work junkie leaves the Aveda Spa Retreat feeling weak-kneed and rejuvenated.

When I invited participants in a workshop to model that passage, one wrote:

After driving from dealership to dealership, having your back slapped and your arm pumped, hearing this half truth and that outright lie, being offered cup after cup of tepid coffee and watching your credit card history get inspected under a microscope — even the most stressed-out soul can leave Ugly Duckling Automotive in a shiny, clean car with your name on the title.

In another workshop, a P.R. agency’s accountant — the accountant! — modeled that passage to come up with this sentence:

After being swindled by a wolf, bitten by a shark, taxed by a giant, outwitted by a bear and bucked from a bull, you can find comfort and security in a Prudential Mutual Fund.

If an accountant (did I mention it was the accountant?!) can come up with that passage, imagine what you can do!
___

Source: Stephen Schiff, “A Cinematic Gallant,” The New Yorker, Dec. 20, 1993, p. 60

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