Explaining Difficult Things, page 6

Poetry, Fiction, and Non-Fiction, continued

An author may be very clear about many things that her characters are not. Indeed, it isn’t unusual for a writer to keep file cabinets full of “back story”—-events, people, and descriptions--that never make it into the published work.

Direct description and explanation work best in non-fiction, and in writing that describes “how-to” do something.

Working With Precision

Earlier in this chapter, in “Everything Is Difficult,” I explained why it is so hard to describe something well. The short summary of that section is that precision is hard; conveying the essence of something is also not easy.

It’s true.

But it is also true that if you are thinking clearly about something, and see it with clarity, you can describe it clearly.

There is hope after all.

The first step is to work with precision. What does this mean?

• If you are describing a process or a voyage, clearly explain each step.

• Define all terms that readers might not know.

• Describe physical objects by explaining the process of viewing them.

• Explain every detail.

• Create a context for your explanation by developing a grammar and taxonomy (see “Dividing and Conquering”). Even if your readers never see the actual grammar and taxonomy, the fact that you really understand the context of the thing you are describing or explaining will be reflected in the quality of your exposition.

• Circle around your subject and show a number of different ways of considering it (see "Circling a Subject").

Continued next page

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