Powerful Writing In 30 Words Or Less: Part 1
Powerful writing, using only words, creates brick wall-breaking, heart-melting, thought-creating, fear-eroding, courage-growing images which change the world both boldly and serif-titiously.
Jon Swanson, Levite Chronicles
This is the first published contribution to my questions: what does powerful writing mean to you?
It’s from Jon Swanson who writes at Levite Chronicles. For more powerful writing from Jon here’s:
Sometimes I Write Hollow, a guest post he wrote for us here and
Shaping The World In Little Ways, a piece he wrote for Liz Strauss’ Change The World series (and where I first came across his words).
Thank you so much Jon for getting to the heart of the matter, as you so often do.
If you’d like to join the challenge and tell us in 30 words or less what powerful writing means to you… just send me your contribution on a comment here, by e-mail, or on Twitter. I’ll be publishing a mixture of stand-alone pieces and bundles of one-liners throughout April.
Joanna Young, The Confident Writing Coach
Because our words count
thank you, Joanna, for the challenge to us all an the opportunity for this version of microblogging. and for the powerful inspiration.
Thank you Jon. I am loving the variety of responses I’m getting from people and that I hope to start sharing next week.
Yours was a great contribution to start off with - straight to the heart of the matter as you so often do
Joanna
I recommend another book, appropriately titled Writing With Power by Peter Elbow (Oxford U. Pr, 2nd ed., 1998). Elbow writes there that he’s interested in writing that brings powerful experiences to the reader, but also writers that have power over themselves and the writing process, “not feeling stuck or helpless or intimidated.”
truthful and heartfelt
Dale, thanks very much for that recommendation. Much appreciated.
Terry - I think you win the prize for the shortest entry so far! And I agree with you: truth and heart are essential to powerful writing. Thanks for stopping by and joining the conversation.
Joanna