Today we're talking about the Good Stuff, not in poetry orfiction, but in everyday prose. All of us know the Good Stuff when wesee it -- the compact simile, the apt turn of phrase, the single linethat ignites a page. How do the good writers bring it off?
One answer comes to mind. Good writers learn to look intently atthe world around them. Into the attic of memory they put aside amagpie's hoard of images. When the right time comes, the right wordwill be there waiting to be retrieved. Let me offer examples.
Tina Brown of the Washington Post was writing in February aboutPrince Charles and his 'devoted old bag,' as the former CamillaParker Bowles calls herself. As the happy couple headed off tochurch, 'Camilla's hedgerow hair and bulky tweed coat were as much adeclaration of intent as her platinum diamond ring.'
Her hedgerow hair! The image was in Brown's attic. She had lookedat English hedgerows -- looked at them intently -- and she had storedthe memory. In February she looked at Camilla, and there was theadjective waiting to be put to lovely use.
David Carr of the New York Times interviewed Joe McGinniss lastsummer about the author's book The Big Horse. Carr found his subjectat the Saratoga Springs training track: 'He looked like a lot of guysfound on the edges of horse racing. He had an old cap set against theSunday morning sun, a handsome Irish face that could have been carvedout of potatoes, and a glint of tragedy in his eyes.' Good writersrely on familiar terms. Has everyone seen a potato?
Good writers hone the fine knife of brevity. Columnist Molly Ivinshas a way of making every word count. During the presidentialcampaign of 2004, she found candidate John Kerry too staid for hertaste: 'He could take all the excitement out of a soccer riot.'
It is an old trick of the writing art to put fresh makeup on aphrase that is showing its age. Thus, Mark Krantz of USA Today begana story on market advisers who were involved two years ago inconflicts of interest: 'Analysts are learning to straighten up andbuy right.'
In the Wall Street Journal several years ago, Daniel Golden wroteabout college professors who prepare a commencement speech just incase a celebrity speaker doesn't show up. Usually speakers arrive ontime, and 'their pearls of wisdom stay forever oystered.'
At a dark time in the Iraqi war, columnist David Ignatius remarkedupon Democratic efforts to brand the invasion a failed policy.President Bush did not relieve the gloom: 'His somber speech onSunday night was all tunnel and no light.'
Mary Schulken, an associate editor of the Charlotte (N.C.)Observer, wrote an article in March lamenting the fact that thecity's local campus of the University of North Carolina is located onthe edge of the city. The site is 'three degrees removed fromCharlotte's web.' The university 'needs to weave itself into thefabric of Charlotte as neatly as a tucked stitch.'
In the Canton (Ohio) Repository in February, reporter CharitaGoshay was writing about voting machines. 'No doubt a few countieswere spooked by preliminary reports that electronic voting machineswere about as secure as a cookie jar at a day care center.'
Three years ago, Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated watched in aweat Wimbledon. The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, 'cover moregrass than fairway mowers,' and 'they get to more balls than theduchess of Kent.' That may not be 'great' writing, but Reilly's stuffis as good as the Good Stuff gets.
E-mail: kilpatjj@aol.com
