S1: Hey there , San Diego. It's Andrew Bracken in for Jade Hyneman on today's show. A new book aims to help us become better writers and craft better sentences. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities to conversation. Good writing. 36 Ways to Improve Your Sentences is a new book by married writers Anne Lamont and Neil Allen. Allen is a former journalist and now author and coach. Lamont is a bestselling author of more than 20 books , including The Beloved Bird by Bird A Guide to Writing and Life. They'll be in San Diego for a book event at Balboa Theater on Wednesday. Lamont and Allen recently sat down with KPBS arts reporter and host of The Finest podcast. Julia Dixon Evans , and here's that conversation.
S2: Let's start with the idea for this book Good Writing. It's about the rules of writing.
S3: One day , an editor named Sam DiLeo pulled me aside and he said , Neal , it's all about writing with your verbs. And that was kind of the first rule , non grammatical rule of persuasive writing that I heard. And what he meant was , if you write with a flabby verb , you don't attract the reader's attention. If you write with a vivid verb , you catch the reader and keep the reader interested in what they're reading. So a flabby verb is I walk to the store. A vivid verb is I trudge to the store. So over my career , I picked up a few more of these rules , and Ultimately , I ended up with having collected these rules. I run them all down. One day they were in the back of my mind and I read them down , and there were about 25 or 30 of them. And when Annie and I met ten years ago , I mentioned them to her. She started using them in her writing workshops and handing them out. And I thought , wow , I just thought they were. I didn't know there was anything special about this list , so I started. I didn't want to write a scolding book or a technical manual or a grammar or something like that. So I just wrote a kind of , um , riffing kind of essay for each one of them , and then it was in whatever shape it was. And I was wondering , well , it's too short to be published. I wonder what I do with this ? And as I do with everything that I write , Annie and I are each other's first readers.
S4: And so , in my examples , we like to include a lot of examples and good writing of to illustrate and reinforce the rules and the hints. And so we each had different writers that we loved , loved , loved our whole lives. So the examples were different. And and it ended up being a dialogue , a conversation between the two of us on really every single thing the two of us know about writing.
S2: Talk to me about that conversation a little bit , the way that your writing turned into a dialogue. How did that play out ? I mean , was it intentional and did you feel like you were shaping the voice as you went ? And , you know , and when you added in your parts.
S4: It's interesting because people have been asking us if there was conflict during the the six months or a year or whatever it was of us writing this book. But Neil had done all the heavy lifting by the time I came in. He had found the structure written about. Each of the rules I added to mine were write the hard stuff , you know , write about real stuff , write about compassion and loss and survival and families. And the second rule was take out the boring stuff. So I when I came along , it was really in place. And so I don't think we really knew that it was a conversation at first. It was a little bit more herky jerky than that , that Neil had these very totally if , but very welcoming , um , essays or meditations on these rules. And then I , with a little bit of a , you know , a smart Acher came along and wrote , oh , I disagree with Neil , and he's overeducated , so I would ignore this rule altogether. And here's what I would recommend. And then little by little , it just started to be a lot more playful and a lot more , um , at reacting to each other's work. And , um , it got to be there got to be a real flow. And I think you'll see that in the book that there's a real sense of , of a , an ongoing conversation about writing.
S2: I mean , I think I felt that as I was reading , um , and , and do you think that your contributions to this book are almost like a continuation of that , like gently encouraging cheerleader figure that you became to so many of us after Bird by Bird , you know , especially in contrast to the explanations.
S4: Yeah , I absolutely do think it's a continuation. And it's the same message. You know , it's like me as the sweet , um , flight attendant that can see you're nervous about flying , you know , and I can come in and tell you that I think your voice is really important. And I think it's really important for you and your soul that you get your memories down on paper , you get your stories told , and that maybe they turn into a memoir. Maybe they turn into a novel or screenplay. Maybe you just want to be better at writing emails to your boss or writing grant proposals. But in any case , Neil tells you how you can really best in most succinctly and with flair accomplish that. And then I come in and I say , no , no , don't give up. It's really good and we can help you make it better. So yeah , I think it's a good question.
S2: I want to talk about a couple of the rules. Like break them down a bit.
S3: These aren't rules like that , right ? Grammar is rules like that. And we have lots of rules like that in life. We use the word rules because there isn't kind of a A word that is between rule and tip. Tip isn't quite enough and rules a little too much. These are the way I think about it , is that if I've got a grammatical sentence , then as a writer who defaults to writing for whom the subject matter is tertiary , the sentence is primary. I'm going to look at that sentence and go , ooh , ooh , ooh , what can I do with this ? This has so much potential. It's got it's already got a subject , an object , a verb. It's already got , um , a plot device in it. It's already got this. Everything's all sitting there , and now it's got a potential to be more. And that's what these rules do , is they give me hints at how to make more out of the sentence and fulfil the sentences potential. Now that that sentence can go in all different kinds of ways and might use this rule or that rule or another rule or whatever. You can take a simple declarative sentence and add a metaphor at the end. Right. You can do all sorts of things with sentences. That's what this book is about. It's about when I go back after the first draft and go , huh , what can I do with this particular sentence ? Mhm.
S2: Let's talk about just a couple of the other rules. Um , what about knock three times. What does that mean in practice.
S4: It has to do with with the rhythm and flow of a sentence and usually typically. And Neal insists that the correct way to do it is to have three examples or three adjectives , three descriptors. And I often use two , partly because it stops you a little bit in your tracks. And , um , but I'm going to let Neal answer this.
S3: And it's interesting what Annie's saying. Most people write with threes. Um , so the good , the bad and the ugly , the lion , the witch and the wardrobe , I mean , mine. And the idea here is it's musical. It's like a musical pattern. If I say. Da da da da da. It it sounds unresolved compared to. Da da da da da da da da. I can't , I almost can't say the third da da without emphasizing it and bringing it to resolution and finality. And that's just the that's a cultural thing , right ? There are cultures that think in twos. But it was something when Annie and I first , ten years ago , started passing pages back and forth between each other. I noticed immediately that she thinks and writes in twos , and I also know that that I'm not going to touch her voice. Her voice always gets to win in her writing , and I and I and I learned to get used to it and how powerful it is for her because it's unusual. It leaves people kind of open at the end , unresolved at the end.
S2: And then one more break the rules.
S4: You can break every rule in the book if you can get away with it , if it remains pleasing to the or enticing to the reader. A lot of good writing has to do with the absolute need to have somebody help you read your work , edit your work , give you feedback on your work so that if you try something that is maybe , quote unquote , breaking the rules and the person who's reading your work for you loves it , great. If the person reading for you says , you know what ? This so threw me because I was with you all along , and then all of a sudden I didn't know where it was going , and I stopped and , um , and you lose the flow , you know , and it's It's been famously said that a confused reader is an antagonistic reader. So if you're trying something and breaking the rules and thinking that you're so avant garde but you've lost the reader , you know what ? What you've got to really consider going back to the rules.
S2: Thinking about the idea of in writing and in life , is this more than a craft book like.
S4: Um , partly I've taught so many workshops and and and whatnot , but a lot of what applies to writing and a lot of what we write about in good writing really does have to do with your life and , and and writing and , and living in a way that is more curious about life and that is more in a state of wonder. Instead of explaining what you're seeing and trying , one of the rules is about the sensory world and how how wonderful it is as a reader for a writer to tell you not just what they saw , but what it sounded like and what the aromas were and what the fabric felt like between their fingers , and that sense that writing can give you a new appreciation and a new benevolent kick in the butt to get more curious about the world , to pay more attention , to become more aware. That is what I hope that this book will also provide , along with ways of becoming a better writer.
S3: I think that's right. And and I think what we yearn for in modern life is a return to some kind of intimacy with the world , with our friends , with people that isn't filtered through judgment. And writing is a really handy , simple way into being intimate and close and connected to the things right around you. Yeah.
S4: Yeah.
S1: That was KPBS arts reporter Julia Dixon Evans , speaking with Anne Lamott and Neal Allen. Lamont and Allen will be sharing more about their writing process and their book at the Balboa Theater this Wednesday , April 1st at 730.
S5: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
