Writing and composition techniques (tricks to use in letters put crudely)

[Eoghan2009]

The thread I started on keeping track of correspondence made me think of what we have lost.  It is almost like domestic archeology, rediscovering what a past generation used to do?  You used to be able to buy a beautiful leather writing set in Argos (catalogue shop) no longer!

 

Anyway to the question!   What techniques do you use in letters?

 

1.  I try to reinforce a concept I am explaining by circling back to it.  I noticed this with comedians who will often open their show with a story and finish by coming back to it. (DryBar Comedy Club)

 

2. If I want to discuss or suggest something I may sow seeds on page 2 that I will develop or pick up on in page 4

 

3. Playfulness!  I enjoy using words which may have two (or more) meanings, in hieroglyphs where a glyph has one or more meanings it is accompanied by a "modifier" indicating the category intended.  One of the things I have been doing is using the word "transitioning" but delaying the explanation.  Hence, "I have been going through a process of transitioning for some fifteen years now"  only later do I explain that it is the transition from the "visual media" to the typographic one.  I mean that when I see something my instinct is no longer to reach for my camera but my fountain pen.  I am transitioning to a literary mindset.

 

4. Punch lines over the page.  This can be difficult to achieve but you wait until you come towards the end of a page and time it so that the punch line is over the page.  Robert Burns said:  "The sweetest hours that ere I spent, were in the arms of another man's wife...                                                                                                                      ...my mother"

 

As we spend more time writing I think we are recovering the lost tools of literacy.

 

Anyway that's my 2 cents what do others have to contribute.  

[Azkim Rikschum]

Open-loop technique.

 

 

[Eoghan2009]

From "Thinking Fast and Slow" p63  bold type, high contrast and rhyming proverbs

On 7/14/2021 at 3:43 PM, Azkim Rikschum said:

Open-loop technique.

 

 

https://copyblogger.com/open-loops/

 

The best example of this was the series of books starting with My Father's Dragon

[Eoghan2009]

Choice of three;  I offer a choice of three anecdotes or stories from which my correspondent can only choose one.

 

For example: 

1) The scissors and the cigarette

2) The yoyo incident

3) Suspected re: mothers garden fountain

[N1003U]

Thanks for starting this thread, @Eoghan2009! I find it an interesting topic.

 

As for me, I do a lot of technical writing professionally (engineering and financial analysis, business plans, etc.), and the techniques I use there seem to infiltrate my personal writing as well. It is largely expository, and typically linear (either chronologically, or by subject matter).

 

When I try too get too "creative" I seem to have trouble keeping focused (and the reader interested). I would love to improve my creative writing, but I have not yet chosen to make the time and effort to do so. Perhaps I should hang out on threads like this more often.  

 

If I had to describe my favorite device for written or typeset correspondence (i.e. ink on paper), it is the classic:

• Tell them what you are going to tell them (introductory summary)
• Tell them (detailed description, with anecdotes broken down in logical order, to the level of detail appropriate for the interest of the audience)
• Tell them what you told them (concluding summary)

I find this method serves a couple of important purposes: I make sure that I say everything I intended to say, I give the reader the option to skim details and just read the summary, if they aren't all that interested in a full description.

 

For electronic correspondence (e-mail, etc.), I try to follow a more "journalistic" model:

• Attention-grabbing headline
• The most essential information, highly summarized, in the first sentence, or at most first two sentences
• A bit more clarification in the next few sentences
• The details at the end

 

With this structure, the reader can 1.) decide if s/he even wants to read the message, and then 2.) read only as far as they need to in order to obtain the amount of information and detail they need. I find many people don't either like reading electronic communication, or they don't have a lot of time for it, so it is important to say the most relevant things first. My rule of thumb for business correspondence: the high the organizational level of the reader, the lower the sophistication of the writing. Many executives don't read past the first sentence, and some not even that far.

 

I also write for a lot of international audiences for whom English is a second (or third) language, and there the general rule is almost always "the simpler, the better". I love puns and complex metaphors, but they get lost on audiences who don't have the background to appreciate them.

 

I often start personal correspondence by choosing a theme for my writing (What is new here," or "What I have been up to since I last wrote", "what happened yesterday", etc.), make a list of the anecdotes I want to tell, expand those anecdotes to a level of detail required, then transfer that detail to paper in the form of sentences. as a first draft, then I read through it a couple of times and re-arrange/clean-up to form something close to a final draft.

 

For personal correspondence, I prefer to do the development process (outline, drafts(s), final version) entirely with pen and paper, as I feel "closer" to the writing, and it gives me time to think at the same time as I am writing. When I am in a hurry, I will do the outlining and drafting electronically and then write the final version by hand (or electronically as the situation dictates).

[A Smug Dill]

On 7/14/2021 at 5:34 PM, Eoghan2009 said:

What techniques do you use in letters?

   …‹snip›…

As we spend more time writing I think we are recovering the lost tools of literacy.

 

Anyway that's my 2 cents what do others have to contribute.  

 

If I'm writing a letter — by hand with pen and ink, or typed and then either printed or sent electronically — it's usually either a letter of demand or formal complaint. I don't think there are any particular techniques I use, other than the general approach of:

• Start with a statement of how I'm feeling: disappointed, cheated, incensed, offended, outraged, etc.
• Articulate my grounds for the claim or complaint clearly
• Cite any relevant legislation, regulations, industry standards or codes of practice, or parts of the organisation's published policies in support of my position
• Detail the chronology of events — who, what, where, and when — that led to my having a claim or complaint to make
• Show, or make reference to having, evidence of the described events that would likely suffice in convincing independent third parties of my side of the story
• Use forceful but dispassionate language where possible, to convey the idea that they're dealing with someone who is like a brick wall or a bulldozer, just in case they're inclined in the first instance to try to defuse the situation by appealing to human empathy and forbearance, or downplay their fault, failure and/or responsibility
• Throw in suitable corporate buzzwords if I'm writing to the head office of an organisation to complain about a store, branch, or regional representative
• Outline, or allude to, the next steps I will take to escalate the issue if I'm not satisfied with the response I get, if that is something that would be what they'd like even less than giving me what I expect

 

Edited August 6, 2021 by A Smug Dill

[N1003U]

22 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

If I'm writing a letter — by hand with pen and ink, or typed and then either printed or sent electronically — it's usually either a letter of demand or formal complaint. I don't think there are any particular techniques I use, other than the general approach of:

• Start with a statement of how I'm feeling: disappointed, cheated, incensed, offended, outraged, etc.
• Articulate my grounds for the claim or complaint clearly
• Cite any relevant legislation, regulations, industry standards or codes of practice, or parts of the organisation's published policies in support of my position
• Detail the chronology of events — who, what, where, and when — that led to my having a claim or complaint to make
• Show, or make reference to having, evidence of the described events that would likely suffice in convincing independent third parties of my side of the story
• Use forceful but dispassionate language where possible, to convey the idea that they're dealing from someone be like a brick wall or a bulldozer, just in case they're inclined in the first instance to try to defuse the situation by appealing to human empathy and forbearance, or downplay their fault, failure and/or responsibility
• Throw in suitable corporate buzzwords if I'm writing to the head office of an organisation to complain about a store, branch, or regional representative
• Outline, or allude to, the next steps I will take to escalate the issue if I'm not satisfied with the response I get, if that is something that would be what they'd like even less that giving me what I expect

 

That looks like a solid structure: maybe I should try it out sometime.

 

I usually pay lawyers to write that kind of stuff (usually if it is important enough for me to write a letter, the legal fees are a secondary consideration). If I remember correctly from somewhere else, you have a trained personal attorney to assist with the details "on staff"  ...

[kealani]

Get letter in the mail.

Wait for a quiet relaxing time of day, usually my upstairs office with a view of vast nature.

Read letter and enjoy letter just as it is without any thoughts or reactions, as if the person were present in front of me face to face, heart to heart.

Put letter aside and when it has been unconsciously assimilated, read it again and take notes on a blank sheet of paper with a fountain pen, or pencil, or use a vintage typewriter. Jot down, questions asked so I can be sure not to miss that on a reply, topics covered and the 'feeling' of them, general tone overall (what one would perceive in person), jot down any thoughts of my own or responses to bring depth into the responses to each layer of a letter.

Put all that aside and it will unconsciously further brew and internalize on its own until something deep and rich, hopefully, emerges.

At some point, start and write a letter at a great and peaceful time when I can devote as much attention to it as I would to a long and known friend sitting in front of me.

Along the way, I'll ponder what else to include in an envelope, photographs, articles, etc, so that it is a complete and interesting "package" that others might look forward to getting.

The focus is always on thoughtful prose with an effort to engage at deeper and meaningful levels of life where possible.

The physical and engaging act of letter writing with a pencil or fountain pen or on a vintage typewriter makes this level of prose and thoughtful communicative expression and exchange possible, and mutually enriching (hopefully, a journey together), where it might be neglected or not possible through the digital airwaves.

 

I avoid the rigidity of; bullet points, lists, and other institutional type formats, preferring literary prose at a personal level of engagement.

Of course, some letter writers and communicators are more comfortable with the safety in brevity, personal barriers, and structure of more formal or "incident report or updates" style of writing.

With that, I will take care to mirror the same level of engagement of the person's comfort level that I am writing to.

 

Aloha

 

[Eoghan2009]

On 8/5/2021 at 10:05 PM, N1003U said:

Thanks for starting this thread, @Eoghan2009! I find it an interesting topic.

 

As for me, I do a lot of technical writing professionally (engineering and financial analysis, business plans, etc.), and the techniques I use there seem to infiltrate my personal writing as well. It is largely expository, and typically linear (either chronologically, or by subject matter).

 

When I try too get too "creative" I seem to have trouble keeping focused (and the reader interested). I would love to improve my creative writing, but I have not yet chosen to make the time and effort to do so. Perhaps I should hang out on threads like this more often.  

 

If I had to describe my favorite device for written or typeset correspondence (i.e. ink on paper), it is the classic:

• Tell them what you are going to tell them (introductory summary)
• Tell them (detailed description, with anecdotes broken down in logical order, to the level of detail appropriate for the interest of the audience)
• Tell them what you told them (concluding summary)

I find this method serves a couple of important purposes: I make sure that I say everything I intended to say, I give the reader the option to skim details and just read the summary, if they aren't all that interested in a full description.

 

For electronic correspondence (e-mail, etc.), I try to follow a more "journalistic" model:

• Attention-grabbing headline
• The most essential information, highly summarized, in the first sentence, or at most first two sentences
• A bit more clarification in the next few sentences
• The details at the end

 

With this structure, the reader can 1.) decide if s/he even wants to read the message, and then 2.) read only as far as they need to in order to obtain the amount of information and detail they need. I find many people don't either like reading electronic communication, or they don't have a lot of time for it, so it is important to say the most relevant things first. My rule of thumb for business correspondence: the high the organizational level of the reader, the lower the sophistication of the writing. Many executives don't read past the first sentence, and some not even that far.

 

I also write for a lot of international audiences for whom English is a second (or third) language, and there the general rule is almost always "the simpler, the better". I love puns and complex metaphors, but they get lost on audiences who don't have the background to appreciate them.

 

I often start personal correspondence by choosing a theme for my writing (What is new here," or "What I have been up to since I last wrote", "what happened yesterday", etc.), make a list of the anecdotes I want to tell, expand those anecdotes to a level of detail required, then transfer that detail to paper in the form of sentences. as a first draft, then I read through it a couple of times and re-arrange/clean-up to form something close to a final draft.

 

For personal correspondence, I prefer to do the development process (outline, drafts(s), final version) entirely with pen and paper, as I feel "closer" to the writing, and it gives me time to think at the same time as I am writing. When I am in a hurry, I will do the outlining and drafting electronically and then write the final version by hand (or electronically as the situation dictates).

Interesting, I was particularly struck by a book "Why Johnny Can't Preach".  It was written by a lecturer in media ecology who, diagnosed with cancer, was spurred to offer his diagnosis of why so many preachers ramble.  Basically he said they are not writers.  They have a poor concept of structure and development and would do well to write letters and read poetry.  Last Sunday the main point of the text read was mentioned in the final minutes but received no emphasis and was totally lost amidst observations and the noise of the previous 25 minutes.  

 

When I sit down to write I know exactly how many pages I will use (weight limits usually), I spend time replying to the points raised in their letter, allow myself maybe a page to wax lyrical on a pet topic but then use the other three to answer questions and pose some of my own.

 

One of the things I particularly enjoy is retelling a particular story.  Each time I retell it I hopefully tell it better, refining it and placing the emphasis where it needs to be.

[kealani]

8 hours ago, Eoghan2009 said:

Interesting, I was particularly struck by a book "Why Johnny Can't Preach".  It was written by a lecturer in media ecology who, diagnosed with cancer, was spurred to offer his diagnosis of why so many preachers ramble.  Basically he said they are not writers.  They have a poor concept of structure and development and would do well to write letters and read poetry.  Last Sunday the main point of the text read was mentioned in the final minutes but received no emphasis and was totally lost amidst observations and the noise of the previous 25 minutes.  

 

When I sit down to write I know exactly how many pages I will use (weight limits usually), I spend time replying to the points raised in their letter, allow myself maybe a page to wax lyrical on a pet topic but then use the other three to answer questions and pose some of my own.

 

One of the things I particularly enjoy is retelling a particular story.  Each time I retell it I hopefully tell it better, refining it and placing the emphasis where it needs to be.

Great points.

Well said.

Yes. In writing, putting pen or key strike (manual vintage typewriter) or quill to paper or parchment, there's an opportunity to live up to the medium with thought, deliberation, composition, and prose, . . and artfully. .  as in the "craft" of writing.

It takes effort to read someone elses penmanship, effort to internalize what is being said in intent and meaning, and appreciation for their efforts to write, to address an envelope, put a stamp to it, take it to the mailbox. Isn't this different (sometimes?) than a perfunctory email, or text, or twit, or chat, etc, where communication is brief, disposable, and forgettable (not always but seemingly so).

So, in writing via paper, parchment, ink, and quill, we have all the writer's tools available; metaphors, stories, dialogue, literary flavors, et al. Why not use them all? (of course as long as the conversation allows as some might prefer to go no farther than to report the weather and bullet points of the day's events without any personal disclosure beyond that.).

 

Some randome thoughts and missives.

k

[Eoghan2009]

One of the things I have tried to do is include things that have almost been forgotten.  My Grandfather was a huge influence on me and I have many stories about him and what he got up to.  By rescuing them from obscurity I feel I am keeping his memory alive (until I meet him).

 

There are stories about his character, his jokes, his painting and much more.

[Eoghan2009]

On 8/5/2021 at 10:05 PM, N1003U said:

Attention-grabbing headline

I must admit that I have used this too.  There is a lovely Robert Burns quote,  " The sweetest hour that ere I spent was in the arms of another man's wife...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...my Mother"

 

It helps if it is on the next page.  One of my choice of three was my career as a criminal - a Scotsman breaking English law.  That definitely sounds like a juicy topic and you have to wait until the next letter if you want to know the truth behind the headline.  Assuming that you choose that from the three.

 

[Eoghan2009]

Oops mentioned that one already

[TSherbs]

16 minutes ago, Eoghan2009 said:

Oops mentioned that one already

 

Moms don't mind the redundancy.

[TSherbs]

I have one formula for letter writing:

 

paper + pen + (coffee) --> letter

 

My correspondents don't get inserts or drawings or teasers or pet photos or whatever. They just get my organic thoughts of the moment (fueled by FTO coffee sourced around the world through a local roaster). Sometimes I will browse their last letter before writing, but frequently not.

 

Way I roll.

[ParramattaPaul]

For me personally, it is a matter of what and why I am writing, and then the nature of the material and the audience.  Most of my writing (some published) is technical or explanatory in nature.  My few attempts at fiction has been limited to a short stories.  With that, it is usually a matter of establishing the subject and why it is being discussed.  Then, it is a matter of identifying, and elaborating upon, the key points, and closing with a brief summary.  I try to word what I write as I would if I was explaining the topic verbally to someone -- just as I have done here.

 

Speaking of an 'archaeology' of the written word which Eoghan mentioned, I believe much value can be had by reading and studying how some of the essayists of the late 19th and early and middle 20th Centuries constructed ideas and thoughts, their word usage, sentence structure, and simply how they expressed themselves on paper.  The likes of Belloc, Chesterton, and their contemporaries offer good examples for the 'word-smith'.

[Eoghan2009]

12 hours ago, ParramattaPaul said:

Chesterton, and their contemporaries offer good examples for the 'word-smith'.

Any examples you can offer?  I assume you are referring to J.K. Chesterton?

[Eoghan2009]

G K Chesterton (very popular at the Bee)

[N1003U]

12 hours ago, ParramattaPaul said:

Chesterton, and their contemporaries offer good examples for the 'word-smith'.

 

I can't find a quotation from him on the subject, but I do not believe Chesterton would have been keen on the idea of trashing subject verb agreement.

[Eoghan2009]

I tried to put together all my experience of the past 15 years in a leaflet (UK) flyer (US).  Not sure I can upload a doc but message me if you are interested in making it better. (or know how to upload a Word doc)