BE SPECIFIC BY MARVIN WILSON

Be Specific

Today we will be covering the important subject of being specific in our writing. Eliminate ambiguities and vagueness–unless they are put in for specific purposes, they tend to weaken your prose. Let’s look at an example.

~~~~~

John had slept for almost eight hours, and was nearly shocked when he looked at the clock. Way after seven already, and he was supposed to be to work in a little less than half an hour. He rolled over and kissed Mary.
“Hi, baby,” she said, stirring with a smile. “You have to get going, don’t you?”
“You could call that the understatement of the year,” he said as he jumped out of the bed and practically ran to the bathroom to freshen up. As he showered he couldn’t get the pressing challenges of the day facing him. Seven or eight deadlines to meet with important paperwork and three or four appointments with possible investors that he still had to prepare for before noon.

~~~~~

See how vague that reads? You do get the definite impression that John has his butt in a late and frustrated rush, but the specifics of the situation are not clear. Let’s look now at the same passage with clarity written into it.

~~~~~

John had slept for eight hours, and was shocked when he looked at the clock. Twenty after seven already, and he was supposed to be to work by seven thirty. He rolled over and kissed Mary.
“Hi, baby,” she said, stirring with a smile. “You have to get going, don’t you?”
“That’s the understatement of the year,” he said as he jumped out of the bed and ran to the bathroom to freshen up. As he showered he couldn’t get the pressing challenges of the day facing him. Seven deadlines to meet with important paperwork and three appointments with possible investors that he still had to prepare for before by eleven thirty this morning.

~~~~~

Now we have not only the general idea of how John’s morning rush hour scene is unfolding, we have the exact specific details of just how pressed he is for time, hmm? Again, if there is some reason for not giving out specifics, perhaps you are keeping secrets from your readers for a while, got a twist coming up, or a red herring you’re not ready to let out of the bag yet, then fine–be vague about it. But if you write someone had to ‘almost’, or ‘nearly’, or ‘just about’ do something, why not tell us exactly what it is and whether they did it ... or not?

Marvin D Wilson, multi-published author and editor with All Things That Matter Press, using the pen name “Professor Old Silly,” posts writing tutorials on his blog each Tuesday. The above tutorial is a re-post from the archives of his blog at: http://theoldsilly.com. 

MARVIN IS AUTHOR OF SEVERAL BOOKS INCLUDING: