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Craft of Writing

Sarah White

Writing with the Three Cs

Every writer, if he or she is to be successful, must keep three criteria in mind when working on any piece of writing. I call them the three Cs: clear, concise and correct. It sounds pretty simple, but it makes a big difference in making your work attractive to editors.
 
When your work is clear, concise and correct, it says the right thing in just the right way, gives the reader (and your editor) all the information he or she needs and not a bit more, every fact and figure is correct and the story flows smoothly from beginning to end. Suddenly it sounds a bit more difficult, but it's really not if you think about what each piece of the puzzle means.
 
Clear: Is it possible for someone who is not an expert in the field about which you are writing to understand your words? Is your article free of jargon, or are special vocabulary words explained? If you are writing on a continuing topic, is there sufficient background provided that someone who hasn't been following the story would understand what is going on? Could someone follow the directions you provide in your how-to article and get the right result (you haven't skipped over anything or left out an ingredient)? Are your transitions fluid? Do you have transitions, or do you just skip from idea to idea without tying them together?
 
Concise: Say what you need to say and tell the whole story in as few words as possible. Scrutinize every word, making sure they are all needed to get your point across clearly and correctly. Eliminate extraneous description, adjectives and adverbs. Use strong verbs to get your point across. Don't use all your material; just because you wrote it down doesn't mean it belongs in the article. And if you are writing an article with sidebars, make sure you don't repeat a lot of facts in both; that will just bore your readers.
 
Correct: Double-check all your facts, then check them again. This is the point you should be most obsessive about, because if you don’t get your facts right, you will ruin your reputation as a writer. Make certain all the numbers and statistics you cite are correct. Check the names and titles of all the people you interviewed and make certain that you attribute quotes to the right people (and double-check the quotes, too, making certain you didn’t take anything out of context or misinterpret what your source said). If there's anything you're not perfectly certain about, contact one of your sources for a clarification. Try to anticipate your editor's questions and answer them in your article.
 
As you probably noticed, all these goals build off each other, and you will find as you focus on one aspect, the others will begin to fall into place. The more you write with these concepts in mind, the easier it will be to get your stories right the first time, which should make both you and your editors happy.
 
But how do you know if you’re being clear? How do you know if you’re using just the right words and just enough of them to get your point across? It can be difficult at first, but there are a few things you can do to help you see potential problems in your writing:
 
Wait. After you finish writing an article (or a query, for that matter), don’t immediately send it out. Work on something else for at least a day before going back to it. You don’t have a day? Take an hour, go for a walk, listen to some music, do something to take your mind off the piece for a while.

Print. When you go back to the article, print it out. I know it seems wasteful, but it really helps to read a story both on screen and on paper. You catch different mistakes that way (and if you’re an editor at heart, like me, the feeling of paper and pen in hand can’t be beat). Besides, you recycle, don’t you? So no worries; just print it out.

Read. Now is not the time to be embarrassed; read your words out loud. If you’re afraid your loved ones will overhear and make fun of you, close the door. If you work in the public library or somewhere you really can’t talk, just read very slowly so you can “hear” each word in your mind. Again, hearing the words is different from just reading them, so you are more likely to catch places where things don’t flow perfectly or where words are missing than you would if you just read it silently. As you go through this read, underline phrases that seem clunky or too descriptive, places where you had to take a breath in mid-sentence and anything that just doesn’t sound right. Then go back and fix those problem areas. And make sure you check your facts, figures and names at this stage, too.

One more time. After you revise, read it again (yes, on paper and out loud). Make sure you haven’t added any errors, that your piece fits the assigned word count, and has a compelling headline and a bio if required. Run spell check if you must, but know that reading is the only thing that will allow you to catch the most common mistakes, like using 'to' when you mean 'two'. Label this final printout with the publication you sent it to and the date and file it where you file such things.
 
These suggestions focus largely on nonfiction works, but fiction writers can benefit from focusing on these goals as well. Your writing should be clear, free of convoluted phrasing and excessive words. Tell your story in as few words as possible—don’t add 10,000 words because you fall in love with a scene that doesn’t progress the story and don’t write a novel when a short story would advance your theme just as well. And though your fiction does not have to be literally correct, it does at least have to be believable, to fit in some way into our conception of the way the universe is supposed to work. You can lose credibility with fiction readers almost as easily as you can with nonfiction readers.

The three Cs can help you when a project seems too big to handle or when you’re working on a tight deadline. But if you get in the habit of always writing with them in mind, you will see your writing improve. Your editors will notice, too.
 

About the Author 
Sarah White is a freelance writer and editor who also works for a small publishing house. She is the author of “Doing the Write Thing: The Easy Way to Self-Edit.” She can be reached at saraheg13@hotmail.com.