Posted by By SARAH NGUYEN, Photography by Hannah Ryu
J Camp Live! Staff
Roy Peter Clark’s attire — a light ocean blue shirt with stitched palm trees, gray slacks, and Nike shoes — may have been casual, but he’s definitely serious about his writing. The journalism guru certainly has a toolbox full of writing tips, which he compiled these in his latest book, Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer.
On Saturday, Clark spoke to J Camp and demonstrated two of the strategies featured in his book. He first presented the last tool in his book, Tool 50: “Own the tools of your craft . Build a writing workbench to store your tools.”
After having the students perform the chicken dance for what seemed to be a non-correlated activity, Clark explained the dance’s significance in terms of writing.
“You have to know the power of the parts, like the parts of the chicken dance- like how the first part represents the beaks,” he said.
Clark explained the essential parts of the writing process.
Ideas: Be aware of all your surroundings. He described his experience of getting lost around Miami as one that generated a plethora of story ideas by just looking around, including the hostage recovery drill being performed on campus.-Collect: Always “go early and stay late.” He advised to be a sponge, get all the information you can absorb- the more, the better.
Focus: “How would you describe yourself in a nutshell?” said Clark. He suggested to use that same approach with stories. Rather than pay attention to his receding hairline, Clark pointed out that him wearing his grandmother’s wedding ring was the more important detail.
Order: “The most valuable order is always beginning, middle, and end,” said Clark. “Whether you realize it or not, you’re always thinking about a story’s order once you hear about it.”
Draft: To avoid procrastination, Clark says he always writes as quickly as possibly. “Use procrastination as a rehearsal. Use it to build up energy.”
Revise: Use your draft as a foundation you can build on through revision.
Clark later discussed Tool 2: Order words for emphasis. Place strong words at the beginning and at the end.
He used the classic Macbeth line, “The Queen, my lord, is dead,” to explain the 2-3-1 tool of emphasis, in which the least important word or phrase of the sentence ( e.g. my lord) are sandwiched in between the two more imperative word or phrases (e.g. The Queen, is dead.)
After asking students to come up with ways of how the sentence could be re-worded, the students decided that the sentence was best the way it was.
Clark also offered this sentence, “The crowd gathered and knelt around the 15-foot creature.” Catherine Roberts was the winner of $1 bill autographed by Clark himself for quickly reordering the words for its strongest emphasis, “The crowd gathered around the 15-foot creature and knelt.”
Like Clark said before, this tool’s effect is instantaneous.
“The word ‘knelt’ has certain connotations of mourning,” said Clark. “With the action at the end, there’s more emphasis on ‘knelt.’”
(To see his entire quick list, visit www.poynter.org/quick50).
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