Listen for the bell

"Knowing Write from Wrong," my new class on writing, begins Monday night at Columbus State University's Turner Center. The bell rings at 6:45 pm and classes run for five Mondays. There is still time to sign up. Visit www.conted.colstate.edu or call 706-568-2023.

Relearning Old Lessons

Years have passed since I wrote deadline stories from a college press box. I admit some trepidation going into last Saturday's Georgia Tech-Georgia contest. But falling back on old skills, I survived.

Writing such articles requires some prior thought. As the football game unfolds, you start looking for subjects that will support the main game story. If you wait until the game is over to do this thinking, you start off in trouble. Fortunately for me, the outcome of the game wasn't in question in the fourth quarter. I realized Tech Coach Chan Gailey's job would be in jeopardy so that took care of one sidebar. For the second story, I thought of some bizarre situations during the game that led to Georgia's victory.

By making these decisions you go into the post-game interviews ready to listen for comments that fit your plan. Of course, if you're wise, you listen for comments from coaches or players that lead you to throw out the stories you've planned in favor of something more interesting. That didn't happen Saturday. My ideas survived and so did I.

CSU will have class on writing

Check the 2008 catalogue and schedule of the Columbus State University continuing education department. I will be conducting a class on writing beginning Jan. 28. Information is available at www.conted.colstate.edu or by calling 706-568-2023. Sign up and join us.

Typewriters vs. Keyboards

That old Royal upright on this page brings back memories. That was the kind of typewriters we had when I took typing in high school — one of the smartest decisions I made when I was that age. It was also the model we had in the early newsrooms where I worked.

So do I want my Royal back?

No thank you.

I still beat on my Mac like I was striking the keys on my Royal. I've had carpal tunnel surgery and my style of typing didn't help. I have an old typewriter in my office at home but it is a museum piece, not something I want to use.

Colleagues at the time left the newspaper rather than change over to computers. They were scared and they didn't think they would survive. They were oh so wrong. I strongly believe computers make us better writers. We can compose without worrying about scrambled keys or an unruly ribbon. We can make corrections easily. We can rewrite — no excuses. We spell better and we have a fall back for our grammar. It's cleaner, quieter and more easy to save and store.

Besides, I never could change a ribbon.

Staying active

Staying active is good for heart patients and good for writers.

Nothing is flatter than a story in the passive voice. Keep the verbs active and your story will move and have life. If you don't, your sentences have the energy of a balloon that has lost its air.

Did I tell you the one about ....?

Across a table at Starbuck's, we tell our story with animation. We're
sad when we're supposed to be sad and we laugh when it's funny — or at
least we think it is. Details pour out. Our descriptions are vivid and
we use just the words that relay them to our fellow coffee drinker.

OK, here's your laptop. Write that same story.


The person gets stiff. They're as formal as a black tuxedo and their
emotions are as dry as the Chattahoochee River. Their story is flat.
Though their verbs agree with their nouns and their punctuation follows
the ageless rules of grammar, their story is as flat as their computer
screen.

As an editor, I used to see this over and over in the
newsroom. A reporter would rush into the room and breathlessly tell
what just happened at a government meeting. Everybody would laugh, and
I'd tell the reporter to write that up. When he did, it was a very
proper who-what-when newspaper story — but it did not truly tell the
story.

So at the keyboard, we should tell our stories just like
we would if there was a Skinny Latte on the table. Forget the rules.
Just tell the story.