Free Advice for Writers

Normally, I’d charge big bucks to divulge my secrets for good writing. But today only, just for you, I’ll part with a few of the lessons I’ve learned over the years:

The Most Important Thing
By Steve Millburg

Before you tell me anything else, tell me why I should care.

That’s the most important thing about any kind of journalistic writing—news, features, editorials, commentaries, service pieces, humor columns, obituaries, letters to the editor, or anything else.

Neglect of this simple technique causes the dreaded MEGO Syndrome. “MEGO” stands for “my eyes glaze over.”

Travel writers seem particularly prone to violate this rule. “The British first came to this peninsula in 1742, but few traces of their tenure remain. Next, at the dawn of the 19th century, came the French, who left a stone wall whose crumbling remains can still be seen along the edge of the highway. …” And on and on. If you manage to hang on until about the 10th paragraph, you might make it all the way to the present century and start to get some idea of what it’s like to visit this place now. More likely, your eyes long before that point will have skidded right off the page and on to something else.

Contrast that with this approach: “The setting sun gives my face a last warm caress as the ocean breeze plays with my hair. I sit holding hands with my sweetie on a crumbling stone wall, feeling its nubbly texture though our thin tropical clothing. Our free hands each hold a glass of a local white wine, a little rough around the edges but intensely flavorful, like the countryside surrounding us. For a solid 20 minutes, as we watch the sun sizzle slowly into a bright orange sea, neither of us feels the need to speak.”

Okay, now I’m hooked. Now I want to be there. Now I want to know all about the history of this place, and the food and lodging options, and how you heard about it, and what airline I need to call to book a ticket.

Start your story by showing me—not telling me, but showing me, right away—why I should care about what follows. If you can do that, then I will read your every word, and you will become rich and famous. As the baseball groupie Annie Savoy says in the movie Bull Durham, “Guys will listen to anything if they think it’s foreplay.” Same principle.

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