SUMMER WRITING WORKSHOP (1): Writing is HARD

WRITING WORKSHOP (1): Writing is HARD!

?A good place to start any discourse about writing is to acknowledge that writing is HARD. Writing is hard not only for us mere mortals. Writing is hard even for the most talented and illustrious writers we know.

?Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemmingway wrote books and short stories famed for their simplicity, directness, and clarity. He literally made writing look easy.

?Yet, as Hemmingway himself tells us in the quote above, producing this simple prose was for him like hemorrhaging blood. ?

?Maya Angelou is another example. Her iconic award-winning poems and books were powerful because of their unrestrained honesty. What could be more simple than honest recounting of one's own experience? But she confessed that

“Each time I write a book, every time I face that yellow pad, the challenge is so great. I have written eleven books, but each time I think, ‘Uh oh, they’re going to find out now….”

This quote reveals a key reason why writing is hard. When we write, we create a physical record by which we can be judged, even by ourselves. ?

Canadian poet Anne Carson adds to our understanding of why writing is hard. In an email to a NY Times journalist, she wrote:

?“we’re talking about the struggle to drag a thought over from the mush of the unconscious into some kind of grammar, syntax, human sense; every attempt means starting over with language. starting over with?accuracy. … every accuracy has to be invented. . . . i feel i am blundering in concepts too fine for me.”

?Although her language is less polished, Carson captures precisely why writing is so hard. Writing is the struggle to transform mush from our unconscious into accurate grammar and syntax that makes sense to others. (I admit that I also love this quote because it is reassuring to learn that even a poet the NY Times refers to as inscrutably brilliant feels like she is "blundering" as she writes.)

Legal writing is generally not as soul-wrenching as writing poignant, self-revealing poetry or literature. But the purpose of legal writing is not so different, even if its stakes are more concrete. ?

Written advocacy is an effort to shape a decisionmaker’s understanding of the dispute in a way that is most favorable to your client. Even the more mundane legal analysis in a client memo is an effort to shape your (often) non-lawyer client’s understanding of an issue so they can make an informed choice.

?Paraphrasing Carson, the goal in legal writing is to drag legal concepts from the mush of your unconscious understanding of vague and often-confusing legal sources into prose that is accurate, clear, and persuasive. That is a monumental task. Taking on that monumental task, even when it is a mandatory assignment, is an act of courage.

Future posts will focus on more practical topics. But some insights about why writing is hard are useful background for these later topics, such as how to start writing projects and how to edit your own writing.?

?DISCLAIMER: North American authors cited in this post are a prelude to this disclaimer. Language and writing are inherently cultural. As a product of a North American education, my suggestions and advice in this series are necessarily influenced by my own background.?

As discussed later in this series, one of the most important features of good writing is to know and write directly to your audience. Some points in this series are surely universalizable, but others may need to be adapted when you are writing to an audience from a different culture.

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