Nothing is so useless as a general maxim. Thomas Babington Macaulay

Interviews: a tasty ingredient in an article entrée.

Though writers are sometimes associated with a reclusive lifestyle, we often depend on inspirational words from others to bring our words to life – at least when writing a feature story.

Some people emit inspiration like a pheromone. These people are a dream to interview. Every second sentence is replete with meaning, relevance and brilliance. With Dictaphone clutched protectively in hand, a writer nods and “Uh-huh”s while already picturing the final article, complete with bold pull-out quotes adorning the copy like tinsel on a Christmas tree.

A well-placed pull-out quote can subtly introduce a theme or entice a reader to ponder its meaning long after the last word is read. But what do you do when you’re quoting from an uninspiring source?

Let the interview subject do the talking

A writer may have the bulk of an article complete, just waiting for a quote or two, the final puzzle pieces. You’ve done the groundwork. You want to make your interview subject sound brilliant.

Even when it seems like an awe-inspiring quote isn’t forthcoming, be patient. Listen, and keep asking questions. What you shouldn’t do is preface a question with the quote you’re hoping to hear. That would look something like this:

You: Did you start teaching music because you wanted to see the next generation flex their creative muscles? Was it because you wanted them to have an outlet of escape? Was it because you truly care for future generations and want to lead them into success in the only way you know how?

Interview subject: Ah… yep.

“Ah… yep,” isn’t inspiring, and that’s the only direct quote you can use.

Instead, ask broad questions, and let your interview subject show his personality. They may surprise you, or reveal something that you couldn’t possibly have known before the interview.

You: What got you into teaching music?

Interview subject: On my grandfather’s deathbed, he made me promise that I would be creative until the day I die and teach others to do the same. Every note I play is for him.

Now there’s a pull-quote worth hanging on the tree.

I love a good give. Cami Walker – Founder, 29Gifts

I simply adore learning new things. I love letting in ideas, experiences, the insight of others.

One particularly insightful – not to mention creative – endeavor I’m enamoured with lately is 29Gifts.

Founder Cami Walker spent a sleepless night struggling with Multiple Sclerosis before picking up an old journal. In it, she found a note she had written two months before based on advice given by her spiritual teacher. The advice was simple: Give something away each day for 29 days.

As Walker committed herself to the challenge, she writes that, “…the more I gave away, the more abundance I was experiencing for myself.”

Well… I’m all for abundance; I’m all for trying new things. 29Gifts – here I come!

Finding creative ways to give

You may be wondering what this gift challenge has to do with a writing website. Four days into the challenge, I’m finding it has everything to do with creativity and finding new ways to express myself.

I knew from the start that some days would be difficult. I may find myself unmotivated, I may find myself reticent to ‘give’ in the sense of simply buying something to turn around and pass on. I want my gifts to be meaningful, not given with a grumble or a sense of obligation.

To make that all happen, I already find I’m putting a lot of thought into how other people feel. What would help someone else?

When you start thinking that way, when you start taking the idea of self out of the equation, it’s amazing how much things start to open up. I see people in a new way – even those I know well. I’m encouraged to see beyond the exterior.

Yesterday it meant ironing someone else’s work shirts and trousers. The day before it meant carefully watching the dough rise for my homemade cinnamon rolls. Today it means taking photos to help someone who’s looking to rent their home.

And I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after. Anne Morrow Lindbergh

I come from a long line of coffee drinkers. My grandfather preferred coffee to milk in his cereal; my father drinks high-octane espresso before bed when he wants to ‘unwind’; and there’s a different kind of sparkle in my mom’s eyes after she’s had her flavored-latte fix.

It’s only natural that I should follow suit. I chalk it up to being a tortured creative type – only without the torture. A writer without coffee is like a fish without water.

This is why I was thrilled to stumble over a brilliant article by blogger Chuck Norton called ‘Daily Coffee Exhibit: Artists Welcome.’

Put your all into all that you do

According to his article, Norton unleashes his creative prowess every time he contemplates a brew.

His passion for caffeine got me thinking. What if we put such thought and sensory care into all that we do? Here’s what: creativity would flow like honey in the heat of summer, writers would become blessed with more ideas than they know what to do with and fingers would desperately try to keep up with ideas on the keyboard.

What more could a creative person ask for?

Easy ways to check in with your senses

You don’t have to be a caffeine addict to tune in more closely with your senses. Just change your perspective and attention to detail.

The next time you go for a walk, stop in a quiet place to reflect. Check in with all your senses by noticing three things you may have overlooked: three things you can hear, smell, see and feel.

Try to tune in more closely than you normally would. Rather than going for the easy I see trees and flowers, maybe focus on the veins of a leaf. Instead of the pungent and sweet scents of weeds and roses, perhaps you notice the more subtle scents of damp air or rotting roots.

You can always find a way to practice this exercise, whether you’re at home, at work or commuting. Begin to taste food in a new way, and notice the scene around you with more perspective. Even people-watching becomes a deeper and more rewarding experience.

Bringing new sensory experiences into your writing, or any creative venture

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a journalist, a blogger or a budding novelist – you’ll benefit from checking in with your senses. You’ll be able to write with more clarity and beauty. You’ll more easily capture others’ imaginations.

You’ll also surprise yourself by opening a Pandora’s box of curiosity. In my opinion, curiosity is what a writer should most work on honing, even more than technical knowledge and a broader vocabulary. With curiosity, you’ll want to find the perfect word to capture your experience. You’ll strive to learn the best way to arrange your sentences and paragraphs to create powerful stories.  Trust your senses and they will inspire your writing.

They may even lead you to a richer life.

New Zealand leather company Konev have released a creative lookbook introducing their new line of designer bags. in the pond is a collection of stylish handbags, wallets and messenger bags with names and patterns inspired by the tranquility and stillness of a summer pond.

I was asked to write a nature-inspired poem to epitomize the whimsy of this collection. I’ve posted about the creative muse before; this time I found my muse in the bags.

It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.  Robert Benchley

Accolades, fame, critical acclaim… all would appear to be perfect ways to recognize a great writer. Of course, things aren’t always what they seem. Dan Brown, for example, rakes in the cash coming from his DaVinci franchise, but he isn’t exactly an expert on prose – or respected within the writing community. And there are many brilliant writers who may never see an award.

Good writers don’t look like everyone else, and they don’t always get it right on the first draft. So, how can you recognize a good writer when you see one?

Good writers thrive on feedback

Creative careers are unique in that a little piece of the person is included in each project. An accountant has no reason to take a work mistake personally; if they added 2 and 2 and came up with 5, they won’t spend hours explaining that it was their interpretation of the numbers, or a new viewpoint they were experimenting with. In the world of writing, it’s best to listen to feedback from a credible source – not justify.

A good writer isn’t always someone who is born with a gift for writing. A good writer is someone who has devoted his life to perfecting it. This means listening to uncomfortable feedback when your work isn’t quite hitting the mark. It means being big enough to smile and nod as you’re told that after days of hard work you’ll have to start from scratch.

Receiving feedback gets easier with time. Try not to hear “You’re not a good writer” when you’re actually being taught how to do better next time. Anyone worth listening to won’t be attacking you as a writer; they’ll be offering suggestions on ways to improve the piece.

Good writers openly admire the (good) writing of others

I curse the day I began writing seriously. Before then, I could read just about anything and find something to enjoy. But from the moment I began writing for a living, things changed. I could no longer lose myself in a fluffy piece of chick lit if I got stuck on the bad writing. On the flip side, I nearly weep in gratitude when I read a novel or an article that’s crafted beautifully. I delight when I can put down a book thinking, “Now, how can I do that?”

Centuries of brilliant writers have led us to this generation, and there are centuries of brilliant writers to come. Open yourself up to what you can learn from them and become a brilliant writer yourself.

A good writer keeps her ego out of it

People who pride themselves on their creativity are known for being precious about their work. They’ve put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it, and they damn well want recognition. However, writing for a living means that many a critical eye will fall upon your words. It’s best to shake off a precious attitude, if not for your professional credibility, then at least for your sanity.

One of the best pieces of writing advice I’ve been given is to separate the self from the writing project. Do everything you can to make the writing as good as it can be, even if it means swallowing your pride and asking for help. As long as the end result is great (i.e. your client is ecstatic), no-one needs to know the torment that went into making it.

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.  Jack London

There’s nothing worse than being forced to create at gunpoint – metaphorically, of course. When you write for a living, that’s how it feels sometimes. There are wonderful, heady moments where the words flow perfectly from mind to page. Then there are moments when a deadline is breathing down your neck, you feel tapped of creativity and the ruthless clock is mocking you.

Signing up to be a professional writer means knowing that these moments will come. In fact, they’re a lot more common than moments of creative flow. The truth is, writers have to carry on. It doesn’t matter how inspired they’re feeling at the moment. The perfect time to write is always now.

I’ve found a few ways to invite creativity back into my psyche during flat moments.

Find a new perspective

You can find creative oomph by shifting lenses. Trying to see objects through someone (or something) else’s eyes may help spark insight that you couldn’t have found through your own.

Say you’re munching on an apple as you write. What would the apple look like to an ant? Massive, I would imagine. What might Mr. Ant think of this half-eaten apple? The smell of the pectin at the flesh would probably be overwhelming and sweet. Perhaps as an ant you could already smell the apple turning brown as the air oxidizes the fruit. What might you think of the skin? As an ant, maybe you’d be wondering how to penetrate the waxy surface. An apple is a great find as a food source. How many of your buddies would it take to carry it back to the ant hill?

Thinking in this way opens the mind to options that you, the human, wouldn’t have noticed. As an ant, though, the world is a totally different place.

Write by not writing at all

The word ‘writer’ doesn’t even come close to encompassing what it is we do. ‘Thinker’ is a far more descriptive term. When you’re at an impasse, stop the writin’ and get to the thinkin’.

Take a walk and clear your head. Then, gently, invite your writing topic into your thoughts. Without the stress of having a computer screen in front of you, and an expectantly blinking cursor, the mind is capable of wonderful things.

Many writers struggle with the idea of taking time out when facing a tight deadline. It’s far more productive to let ideas flow first; it takes more time to think this stuff up than it does to type it out (unless you’re a really slow typist!).

Write freely and without judgment

Stream of consciousness writing is a nifty trick. A crucial ingredient in engaging writing is the thought put into it, but sometimes thinking too much can get in the way.

It’s possible to follow a train of thought too far down the track. When it happens, the writer’s mind has become bogged down, and it’s difficult to break free. A symptom of this is a partially written sentence on the computer screen, and a partially insane look on the writer’s face.

When that happens, start fresh. Instead of trying to complete the sentence, write about how frustrating the writing process can be, or whatever else comes to mind. It’s the literary equivalent of a verbal rant, a good old-fashioned whine.

Like a good whine, you get a bit of frustration out of your system while also figuring out the root of the problem. If you write for long enough, you will surprise yourself by your own thoughts. You may even inadvertently complete the sentence that sent you on this rampage in the first place.

Losing the muse is frustrating, but it’s all part of the process. The sooner you can move beyond the frustration, the sooner you can create the final masterpiece.

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.  Mark Twain

I collect words like stamps. When I’m not raiding www.quotegarden.com for gems like the above[1], I’m at www.thesaurus.com. I make a game out of listening for words I don’t know and voraciously ripping through the dictionary to find their meaning.

I also love to find new meanings to words I thought I knew backwards and forwards. Playing with the slightly different meanings of two similar words, meanings can change the entire tone of a written piece. ‘Yummy’ and ‘ambrosial,’ for instance, both essentially mean ‘tastes good.’ Though their essences are the same, what kind of associations do you have with each? Which would work better in describing a child’s plate of spaghetti and meatballs? Or a salad of rose water, honey and pomegranate seeds?

The importance of precise writing

Not counting scientific terms, there are about half a million words in the English language. With so many words to choose from, there’s really no excuse for ambiguity. Using precise language honors the richness of our vocabulary.

Precise words are even more important in this age of information overload. It would be easier to understand one another if the economy of words were taken as seriously as the economy of trading. My experience in communications has taught me how easy it is to be misunderstood. A well-intentioned email that was meant as professional might as easily be read as brusque and unfriendly. A carefully crafted research piece meant to reflect the hours gone into its accuracy could be hard to read and understand quickly.

Precise writing means making the writing intention known; it makes it understood. Know the phrase “I can’t quite put my finger on it”? Using a precise word is putting your finger on it. More importantly, it’s helping readers put their finger on it, too.

Precise vs. verbose

Verbose writing is wordy writing. Verbose writing is precise writing’s archenemy. A writer at a loss for a precise word can ramble on and still miss the point. To become a master of precise writing, learn to love words. See each word as a poem, and enjoy analysing its meaning. Love words for what they are, not for how big they are or how smart they sound.

Soon you’ll find that you’ve started a little word collection of your own.

An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate.  Chateaubriand, Le Génie du Christianisme, 1802

Your writing fingerprints

One of the first steps in getting serious about writing is establishing a writing voice. Your writing voice is an authentic translation of what’s going on in your head (comprised of who you are, what you believe in, your background and life story…) and what’s put on the page.

Sometimes writers are so eager to prove their clout that they create overdone prose that doesn’t reflect who they are, making for an inauthentic writing voice. There’s nothing wrong with that – at first. If anything it’s a sign that you want to honour your passion for the craft. But it’s important to remember that it’s part of the learning curve, something to work on. To become a successful writer means becoming confident in your unique voice.

The judges on American Idol sometimes chastise contestants for sounding ‘too karaoke’ – they’re trying so hard to sound like someone else that they’re doing their own voice an injustice. If they had the confidence, they could add heart and energy to the music that no one else could – even the original singer.

Just like fingerprints, no two writers’ voices are ever the same. Give them identical topics, even identical opening paragraphs to begin a novel, and you’ll get two unique takes on life. Work with two different writers with the same advertising brief, and you’ll have two different takes on the best words to use.

Matching writing voice with assignment

What separates an experienced writer from a novice is the ability to honour the writing voice (like fingerprints – it’s inherent) while editing it for the topic and audience at hand. Audience always comes first, and in order to reach an audience your writing must be authentic. Nothing is easier to understand, and more fun to read, than authentic writing.

Fictional writer Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City encountered the issue of fitting her writing voice into her freelance work at Vogue. The Vogue audience is tasteful, distinguished, clever – averse to kitsch and tackiness. Carrie, a sex columnist, would probably have to incorporate just a little bit of kitsch into each of her columns (or at very least, puns). At Vogue, that wouldn’t fly.

A cringe-inducing meeting to talk about a first draft (yikes – what writer hasn’t been there?) revealed that her article contained too much Carrie – not enough Vogue. She had to find a new way to write the article; she had to give her editor what she wanted, while “cleverly concealing the Carrie Bradshaw agenda”… her writing voice.

Your writing voice isn’t dictated by type of piece written; your writing should reflect you whether it’s pensive, funny or purely factual. Mind you, some assignments will allow for more personality than others. Part of the fun in writing is finding the balance between you, your audience, and whomever it is who hired you to write. It’s a bit like putting a puzzle together.

And there’s nothing quite so sweet as adding that final piece.

With a new year comes fresh chances and incandescent energy. Of course, such chances are available seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, but there’s just something about the dawn of 1 January…

It is with this sense of opportunity that I unleash my thoughts on writing to the world. In sharing my own experiences, and garnering the experiences of others, my writing will improve. This blog may even help improve the writing of others. Possibilities will be created, networks established, writing communities fostered, and communication strengthened.

So, welcome writers.

And welcome 2010.