Tips for College Writers--or--Who am I to be Giving Advice

David Murray's basic Outline for the writing to a deadline process is:

Explore
Focus
Rehearse
Draft
Develop
Clarify

I suppose mine would look more like this:

Explore--Well, duh! You can't really write anything until you know what you are writing about.

Rehearse--Actually, until Murray wrote about, "writing away from the desk" I just thought I was lazy. I just thought that the ideas I would kick around in my head were useful starts, but didn't really do me any good away from a computer. After reading this chapter though, I realized that thinking about something is just as important (if not more so) than writing it. It's all about thought, you can only write after you have ideas.

I skipped the "Focus" step because that usually falls between the rehearse and the draft. It is either when I am thinking about what and how to write that I find the focus of my story. Sometimes it comes a little bit later as I draft a story and I realize that some of my ideas are superfluous.

Draft--And then, I write.

String it along--I suppose that this is much the same as Murray's "develop". Murray likes to develop his story into a true story. You got to make it move. My version is just going through the article to make sure it has flow. Always make sure to transition from graph to graph. You never want the reader to say, "how the hell did he get there?"

Edit--I hate editing.

Finally, and Murray says it to, the best advice ever:

How do you get to the Washington Post?
Practice Practice Practice


What did I get from David Arnold?

First, I like all of David's rules. I am not going to type them all out, but here are a few that I find more helpful than the others.

There's always a story in there somewhere

If the story's good, don't let the writing interfere.

Try for an action verb in the first sentence

Don't lead with a quote

Don't lead with a subordinate clause

use descriptive detail, but only what everyone would notice

Don't end your best quotes with an attribution.

I also liked When Arnold tells the reader to stretch out, and let the editor reign you in. I suppose since I am the writer, I will write how I see fit. If the editor doesn't like it I can change it, but if he does like it, then he liked my actual piece.

It was also good that he told us not to overwrite. Not that I usually find that a problem, anymore.