My writing is wordy. I know this about myself and am content to live my life this way. Telling a friend's story in less than 250 words is way restrictive!
I'm not trained as a writer or a designer and, to some extent, feel a bit out of my element. Yet writing has played a large part of my professional career. The more I challenge myself, the better I get. But a part of my personality is being an "informer." (No, not informant.) When I tell a story, I want my listener's experience to as close as possible to mine. This means giving context.
This latest assignment is challenging for the informer in me. In fact, it's turning out very different from my initial vision.
I'll accept this as another path towards improvement. In all honesty, telling someone's significant story in 250 words does not do the story justice.
4 comments:
i feel your pain on the whole not being trained in graphic design. but what doesnt kill us makes us stronger, right? :)
I'm right there with you both...it seems we're really going to have to work at each project and refine our writing and design skills, but I think in the long run that we'll be better for it and maybe have alot of material for our portfolios.
I agree. Not that I don't like the assignment or think the instructors did not think this project out, but 250 words is a tight space to wedge a compelling story. I'm also a wordy writer and struggled with slicing off superfluous crap. It's a tough thing to do. ARGH.
I am with KC in that what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. It's fine to be verbose and it works in certain contexts. A skilled and well-rounded writer must be able to flex and adapt to the need, audience, and purpose and remember that good writing doesn't requires pages and pages of "stuff." Thank goodness I can be inspired by Hale -- precision and acuity are key for successful prose. I should make myself a t-shirt.
The good thing about the word count is that it forces a theme out of the story. The point of the profile isn't to present a life story. The word count keeps me in check.
Nods all around. Class = improvement. Reading Hale and revisiting The Elements of Style help with cutting the excess.
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