Forgotten Bestseller Secrets - Keep 'Em Reading: Lesson 03

OVERALL PATTERN: First noted by Aristotle, people have wanted their fiction and non-fiction only in certain patterns. When an author has learned and internalized these, their works become salable...

ALL POLISHED WRITING demonstrates an over-all pattern. As Aristotle tells us, it must have: a Beginning, a Middle, and an End. Each of these three sections sparks a particular type of interest and possesses a specific quality. Each also has its own specific problems:

1. The Beginning must be clear and should arouse curiosity in the reader.

2. The Middle should be coherent and should arouse suspense in the reader.

3. The End must be brief and inspire the reader with satisfaction.

To avoid puzzlement, capture the reader’s interest right from its Beginning so they continue reading.

A coherent Middle section needs each component to connect to both preceding and following ones. If there’s no continuity, there’s no suspense.

The End needs to be concise since readers can foresee it once they read it. The End must give him satisfaction, or he will feel that he has made a mistake in reading what you have written.

In literature, the flow of thoughts and emotions from one word to another in the reader’s mind are time-based and crucial.

Without continuity you lose your reader. A reader, once disappointed, avoids that author’s future works.

So it’s obvious that the writer must begin with the End in mind. Otherwise his Beginning will not point to the End, nor his Middle lead to it.

The over-all pattern’s issue stems from its structure. We must decide just what we wish to do, do that, and then stop.

Of course, as all critics agree, you never begin your story or article at the beginning or, as Horace puts it, “from the egg,” but with the full-grown rooster about to be attacked in the cockpit. The rule: you always begin in the middle of things, as close to the End as possible. Hook your reader at the very start.

Perhaps you may need to circle back once the reader is engaged in order to provide background information. All only as needed for their understanding. But you begin with the chicken, not the egg.

Otherwise your structure suffers and you will write like the farmer who built his house haphazardly and then sent to town for an “architect to put the architecture on it”!

The architecture of your piece is fundamental. If not pre-planned, you can’t claim to have written anything. Unplanned work remains merely story raw material. In planning your piece you have to consider three things:

1. What is my subject?

2. Who is my reader?

3. What effect do I wish to produce upon that reader—what mood, what kind of pleasure, what conviction, and to what result?

Thus you may wish to tell a fairy story to a child. Your subject is the adventures of Jack with his beanstalk. Your reader is a five-year-old and you strive to produce the effect of wonder, suspense, and eventual satisfaction.

Again you may have a reader whom you wish to make laugh, or weep, or accept some idea new to him. In each case you will have to plan your piece to accomplish that.

The first thing to ask yourself is: “How long should my story or article be?”

The outcome hinges on both your message and your reader’s patience. It’s also by the space required to present what you have to say—to produce the effect you desire upon the reader. Thus there are poems which are effective only if read at one sitting. Readers may find books like the Iliad or the Bible familiar enough to only require reading a single chapter or passage.

The magazine at which you aim has certain limits of length for a piece of the kind you are planning. Your desire to publish there also influences your length choice.

Having determined the approximate length of your piece, you may then consider how you may hope to get it read. Since we use language to communicate, writing without considering a reader makes little sense. It takes two persons at least to produce anything readable: the writer and the reader. These two form a team of collaborators, and neither can have any fun or much success without the other. As John Milton pointed out, the reader should bring as much to reading the book as the author did to writing it. Without that, the reading becomes a one-sided affair, for an author cannot express himself well unless he knows what he and the reader both take for granted and how far he may count upon the reader’s co-operation.

It is the lack of this co-operation which makes some classes so dull. The teacher feels that the student will not co-operate. The teacher therefore puts upon himself the whole burden. He lectures the student instead of enabling him to discover the meaning for himself. The student feels left out. He understands he is there only to hear what is important. Student apathy results from teacher-dominated lessons. That student tunes out, and the class becomes a failure.

This same problem can happen between writers and readers. Everyone must contribute their part to make it worthwhile.

READER’S HABIT-THOUGHT.

All writing requires a form which resonates with the reader’s thought process.

An ancient, four-part formula forms the basic pattern for composition. This formula makes sense whether your writing are sonnets or biographies, epics or novels, short stories or essays. This formula is based upon the mental habits of the human being.

The formula has four steps—

1. We must first catch the reader’s attention.

2. Having caught his attention we must convince the reader that the matter under discussion is one which concerns him, since otherwise he will not continue to read.

3. Having secured his attention and having made him believe he is concerned, we must then get down to cases and show him we have not misled him, by bringing forward such facts, ideas, or emotions as will hold his interest.

4. We must finally leave him with the conviction that his effort of attention has shown progress. We accomplish this by offering him results, suggesting actions, or improved attitudes — all supported by our presentation.

A politician might begin his speech by saying, “Taxes have reached an all-time high.” Thus he gains our attention.

Our politician might then say, “You will have to pay them.” So he shows us that his original statement concerns ourselves.

As his third step he may continue by saying, “You will have to pay income tax, poll tax, ad valorem tax, etc.” Thus he gets down to cases and proves that his second statement is not without basis.

He may then conclude his speech by suggesting, “Send me to Congress, and I will reduce taxes.” He proposes action, a purpose; thus, we feel empowered to address his points.

For convenient memorization, one of my pupils suggested expressing this formula in just four words:

(1) HEY! (2) YOU! (3) SEE? (4) SO!

Memorize this formula now — it’s your fundamental pattern.

Every composition, every piece of writing which makes sense contains this formula. Everything you write should integrate it.

This formula represents the actual process or behavior pattern of the human mind, beginning with attention, proceeding to concentration, and arriving at a conclusion.

First, in every case, block out your material according to this pattern. After writing your copy, check that each of the four steps above is present. Then you will feel sure that you can attract and hold the reader’s interest.

Some of my pupils use the method of writing in the margin of their first draft the brief words given above, opposite the line in which the certain part begins.

Opposite the line which should attract the reader’s attention, they write HEY.

Opposite the line which should show the reader that the matter concerns him, they write YOU.

Opposite the first line of the section intended to get down to cases, they write SEE, and so on. You may find it useful to do likewise.

After blocking out the material in your outline using this formula, it is important to ensure that every sentence you write conveys both an idea or fact and an emotion, with the correct order maintained.

Then check your copy to see whether you have arranged these facts and feelings as alternates in each paragraph or sequence.

Careful, consistent rule following yields communicative, engaging writing. Targeting a specific reader simplifies the writing process.

Within these choices, and using this pattern, we can not start assembling the building blocks to give our reader something engaging and riveting.

The type of article you write will determine the emphasis you place upon each of these steps.

If you were writing a “How-to-do-it” or Practical Article, informing the reader how he may solve some problem or accomplish some feat, like making a garden or flying a plane or caring for a child, the steps most important are the second, YOU, and the fourth, SO, since the theme is “Do it this way.”

If you are writing a Formal Essay on public affairs, where the reader cannot exert much influence but is eager to form an opinion, the important steps are the third, SEE, and the fourth, SO. Presenting facts and arguments within the SEE, and suggesting action via the SO, directs his thought process.

In writing an Informative Article (such as one finds in an encyclopedia), which makes no potent appeal for reader interest but concentrates upon the facts, Here the emphasis falls on the third step, SEE. The article understates the importance of HEY and YOU. SO is more crucial.

For informal essays, if you recount a personal experience, perhaps one you share with the reader, you would emphasize steps three, SEE, and four, SO. But the Informal Essay, which may be whimsical or humorous, allows you greater freedom in choosing those parts of the formula to be stressed.

These four main types accommodate most every topic.

You might, for example, if writing about cats, first do an Informative Article, telling all that is known and agreed upon concerning the cat as a species, with its physical peculiarities, its history, origin, diffusion, etc.

Then you might write a Practical Article on the care and feeding of cats, telling how to take care of them, feed them, and raise them.

After that, you might compose a formal essay weighing the benefits and drawbacks of cat ownership, advising readers on cat adoption.

You might write an Informal Essay describing in a humorous, reminiscent, or whimsical manner your experiences with a certain cat, which would remind the reader of his own experiences, thus sharing an amusing experience with him.

You might write a personality article about a certain famous cat, showing how he became successful in catching mice and made himself necessary to someone who did not like cats. One could transform such a personality article into an informative article using fictional devices.

Or create a how-to guide for improved mouser use. Or a Formal Essay contrasting or comparing the methods of mousing and showing how this cat excelled others. Maybe just an informal essay detailing this cat’s funny quirks.

So much for the over-all pattern.

But an article, like a story, has four parts with a different emphasis. First, the Beginning includes the HEY and the YOU; second, the Middle which embodies the SEE.

This Middle has two sections:

(a) that in which you state the problem and build suspense and interest. This section’s tone will be lighter and more amusing than the Middle’s latter half, and

(b), in which you solve the problem, answer the questions, and get down to serious cases. The second Middle section offers a more serious, informative, and factual account than the first.

The SEE, the Middle, gets down to cases in an interesting and logical manner. Lengthy or short, articles use such instances to captivate readers.

At last, you come to the fourth part or End which embodies the SO.

THE OUTLINE.

To write an article, begin by gathering materials then create an outline. To start, write on a blank sheet, brainstorming ideas related to your topic until exhausted. These jottings will be a list of words, or phrases, or sentences. This serves as a reminder of your ideas and points.

When you have thus jotted down all you find both from firsthand knowledge and reading, you are ready to make your outline. To begin with, you first read over your jottings, underscoring those important enough to serve as main divisions or cases in your Middle or SEE. The order of these jotted sections in your notes won’t match your article. First, determine the order then number the underlined items using Roman numerals. This gives you the skeleton of your cases, your main points in the SEE or Middle of your outline.

Additional notes require similar categorization under existing headings. You therefore go down the page and number each jotting or item with an Arabic numeral (1, 2, 3, etc.) according to which one of the main headings (I, II, III, etc.) each item belongs under.

If you find items that don’t fit under your main categories, remove them from your article or promote them to main categories. Underscore these, too, and then renumber your main headings.

Next, use letters (a, b, c, etc.) to order items under each main heading. Upon completion, all materials receive classification and placement within the finished outline.

From these items, construct the SEE or Middle outline. Write a topic sentence for each of the main headings or cases. List under the main heading in the correct order each of the items you have already tagged with la, 1b, or 2b, 2c, etc.

Thus you complete your outline for the Middle or SEE of your article. This produces the easiest outline.

THE WORK SHEET.

Having the SEE or Middle outline, determine the other three pattern parts. What kind of HEY can you write to catch the attention of your reader? Again, what kind of YOU will hold his interest? What’s the piece’s concluding SO?

This done, you are ready to write your article.

It’s often helpful (since editors require articles to be a specific length) to prepare a worksheet in advance, showing the approximate word count you think each step of the overall plan requires.

HEY: 25 words

YOU: 50 words

SEE:

First Case - 100 words

Second Case - 200 words

Third Case - 300 words

Fourth Case - 60 words

SO: 90 words

Such a Work Sheet enables you to construct your article on sound principles, emphasizing what requires emphasis and slighting what does not.

In this way you allot beforehand the number of words which will be required to present each item — heading and subheading — in your article.

Determine your average words-per-double-spaced page. Progress monitoring will always show work completed and remaining. This teaches you to pre-plan project word counts.

Non-fiction writers must write per their editor’s word limits; otherwise, extensive rewriting is necessary. Next, contemplate necessary transitions between cases, ensuring continuity.

WRITING THE ARTICLE.

Having planned the pattern of your piece, study your work sheet and your outline until you have it all in mind. The following day, use only the worksheet when writing. Do not consult your notes or outline. Then you will write fresh, in your own words. Never write from notes.

If your article is to introduce people or characters or have to deal with personal relationships, or even with only one person, you may —if you desire—use any or every device employed in writing fiction.

If your article lacks characters and human interaction or If you’re dealing with cosmic rays or deep oceans, fictional devices may not be necessary.

In that case — though you cannot take your reader into the mind of a character — you may still keep him in human company by taking him into the mind of you, the author yourself, treating your subject in a personal or autobiographical manner.

UNITY.

However, this will not relieve you from the vital need of holding the reader’s interest and tying everything together so that the continuity will carry him through from start to finish.

By focusing on one subject and avoiding side-bars and irrelevant points, these devices achieve unity. Several paths achieve unity: focus on a sequence of linked occurrences, a singular life path, similar details, spatial or temporal progression, or a comparative analysis of theories concerning identical facts.

Having made sure of unity by excluding everything which is not pertinent to your subject and purpose, you have then to consider a second problem of maintaining reader interest through Continuity or Coherence.

COHERENCE.

The devices for Continuity comprise transitions, plausibility, repetitions, overlapping paragraphs, corroboration (by citing witnesses and conjuring with prominent names);

• of color, incidents, happenings;

• of discovery and reversal, plants, pointers (to ideas or facts coming up later);

• of flashbacks giving the facts behind your article;

• of promise of conflict (which may take the form of contrasting ideas);

• of bait, setting the emotional tone, and showing the type of article (Informative, Practical, Formal Essay, Informal Essay).

Using fact-feeling is still essential in an article with no human presence. In truth this must be a main reliance in keeping the reader reading.

In addition you must strive for intellectual suspense, never answering one question or solving one problem until you have raised an even more interesting question or problem to follow.

Once you establish article and story threads, they should remain unbroken through paragraphs. Each paragraph should connect to the next.

This means that you must take care to make your transitions effective and use overlapping paragraphs wherever necessary.

Having a target reader simplifies the writing process.

You must consider devices for emphasis — or you may call them devices for Focus. Descriptions of standard devices for Focus follow here.

Dialogue is one of the best for this purpose. Using quotation marks around words probably rekindles a reader’s waning interest. You can quote an authority even if your article lacks characters.

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We've considered studying models and their styles to find out how they did it. We now know that sentences themselves build into a common, accepted over-all pattern.

With these bricks, we can build into a strong structure – all we need to understand is the mortar and plaster needed to smooth the reader's flow of enjoyment...

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