Tips for Writers, Making Words Dance

Image by Joshua Hinds on Flickr

Making Words Dance is the title of a book I recently read which is a collection of reflections on Red Smith.

“Who is Red Smith?” you ask. I asked the same question, and since I was hooked by the title, I took the time to read the book and find out.

Red Smith, if you don’t already know, was a popular sportswriter, considered by many to be the best of his era. He’s the originator of the famous quote, “Writing is the easiest job in the world. All you have to do is open a vein and bleed.” According to the book, the New York Times reported he said this when he received his Pulitzer Prize.

Okay. We might be able to learn a thing or two from this guy, right?

Finding the Perfect New Phrase

One thing I noted from Red’s writing is he never used a cliché. Clichés don’t dance, they plod. They step on everyone’s toes. They annoy the reader. Who wants to read something if you know what the author is going to say next? Red’s writing kept the reader hanging on his every word, because his descriptions were so unusual, yet so apt. Here are some examples from his writing to explain what I mean.
He describes a debate between Harry S. Truman and Adlai Stevenson in this manner in his essay “Harry Truman Returns” from the New York Herald Tribune, August 16, 1956.

“This was Harry (“Give ‘Em Hell”) Truman, last Democrat to hold the heavyweight title, coming out of retirement to slug it out with the clever young contender, Ad Stevenson.”

He goes on to describe Harry’s appearance.

“The old champ looked fit, square of shoulder and springy of tread, his skin clear, his eyes bright behind the glittering glasses. No roll of middle-aged flesh showed under the gray double-breasted; his blue polka-dotted bow tie spread wings for bold flight.”

This description firmly plants the President’s appearance, as well as his bearing in a way no ordinary description could.

In “Young Man with Flyrod,” published in the New York Herald Tribune on August 4, 1951, Red describes the young boy he takes on a fishing trip in the Catskills.

“It included a young man of twelve, going on thirteen, who had never before attempted to mislead a trout with a tuft of feather and a barb of steel. He had, however, shown an encouraging spirit several summers earlier when he was eight or nine and used to accompany his parent on forays against the smallmouth bass of Wisconsin.”

At once the reader is on the side of the young boy. Who wouldn’t want this kid to win a battle of man against fish?

One more example, please. This article, “Good, Clean Fun” from the New York Herald Tribune of July 29, 1952, tells of Red’s experience in a Finnish sauna. It’s one of my favorites, both for the funny factor and for his ability to make you feel his pain. (Should pain be funny?)

“It is a sacred rite, a form of human sacrifice in which the victim is boiled like a missionary in the cannibal islands, then baked to a turn, then beaten with sticks until he flees into the icy sea, then lathered and honed and kneaded and pummeled by the high priestess of this purgatorial pit.”

He continues in this reverie of misery,

“Anybody who can survive a sauna can run 26 miles barefoot over broken beer bottles.”

Write Like Red

It was mentioned in the book that Red would spend hours if he needed to find the perfect turn of phrase, the most splendid way of describing things he saw and experienced. That’s what I’ve taken away from reading this book. If it takes twenty tries, if it takes thirty tries, or if by some miracle it only takes ten tries, I’m going to keep digging for those words till I uncover the exact and perfect combination to give the reader the best description possible. When a writer takes time to do that, it makes me an instant fan of their prose. Even if I don’t know anything about their topic, (I know next to zilch about sports,) the writing will hold me fast if they write like Red.

That’s my new goal. It may take a lifetime, but it’s a worthwhile goal for me.

To write like Red.

Do you know of any other writers we should read to help us develop this talent?

Resources:

• Schmuhl, Robert, Editor, Making Words Dance: Reflections on Red Smith Journalism, and Writing, published by Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, Kansas City, MO, 2010. E-ISBN 978-1-4494-0025-5