I’ve been thinking a lot about writing recently (no – but yes, writing is not one of the ‘ings‘). I guess because I’m almost completely back in the groove with writing my stories and writing about writing, and I recently posted about the ‘tions‘ – observation, imagination and inspiration. Tions and ings are crucial to writing – the tions, observation, imagination and inspiration are the foundation but writing should include plenty of ings. I don’t mean a writer should use words ending in ing, although that will happen anyway when you’re writing, I mean the pieces should have the quality of ing.
In no particular order (although I might organise some of them later) a piece of writing, any writing, should be:
- engaging
- interesting
- appealing
- challenging
- exciting
- intriguing
- inspiring
- compelling
- exacting
- stretching
- engrossing
… and many more! This means the writer has to put themselves in the position of the reader – who might think why do I want to read this? What is it about this which makes me keep reading? What can I take away from this? What can I gain from reading it? It’s all about audience in the end, even if the writer is the only one who ever reads it, the same will apply. So use the tions and remember the ings!
Lois Elsden 