Jul 25 2008
Writers: Pay Attention!
Good writers know how to pay attention to what is happening around them. They use the insights and details of what they observe to inform and enliven their writing, whether they’re working on business reports or Nobel Prize-winning novels.
I recently read a great story (apocryphal, I’m sure) that went like this:
A group of beginning medical students went to their first anatomy class. They gathered around a surgery table supporting a human corpse covered by a white sheet.
The professor said, “There are two qualities you will have to have if you want to succeed as a doctor. First, you must not be disgusted by anything that has anything to do with the human body.”
With that, the professor pulled the sheet off the corpse, inserted his finger into an incision in its stomach, stirred it around, and then put his finger into his mouth and sucked it.
“Now I want each of you to do the same thing,” he said.
The students were aghast. Finally, one stepped forward, pushed his finger into the incision, and then put it in his mouth and sucked. One by one, each of the students followed suit until all were standing back in their places, looking slightly sicker than the corpse.
“You’re probably wondering what the second essential quality is,” the professor said. “It’s the ability to pay attention. I stuck my middle finger into the incision, but I put my index finger in my mouth.”
The habit of carefully observing the world and its people is a vital one for a writer – I would say even more important than for a doctor. When Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage,” he really meant it – at least from a writer’s point of view. While others were “strutting and fretting their hour upon the stage,” Shakespeare was observing and taking notes … at least mentally, if not in a notebook.
That’s our lot in life as writers. We’re typically not the ones out there stirring things up, creating the noise and motion of life. We’re the ones watching, paying attention, and remembering what we see, hear and feel. That’s the stuff of our writing, no matter what type of writing we do.
The bad news is, it has never been more difficult to pay attention. Why? Technology is the prime culprit. Everywhere you look, you see people with cell phones on their ears or headphones in their ears. You see others who have been absorbed into digital computer screens. Walkers, drivers, joggers and bikers are not soaking in the sights, sounds and smells of the world around them. They are caught up in music created in a sound-proof studio in Southern California or carrying on a phone conversation – probably an unnecessary one – just to kill the time.
No one’s minds and senses are where their physical bodies are anymore. Their consciousnesses have been abducted into digital shadowlands, far removed from the here and now of reality.
This cannot be good for people in general. For the writer, it is a death sentence.
While cell phones, digital displays and certain high-tech toys have largely become unavoidable parts of modern living, writers must use them and then push them aside and pay close attention to the real world around them.
In a future article, we’ll discuss how to hone our observation skills in order to pay closer attention and become better writers.
What would be one way that a person could increase their vocabulary? Since I have no formal training as a writer (but love to write) and am a busy parent right now with no time for school, is there something that I might do? I feel like if I had ‘more words’ to use, my writing would be better. thanks!
Good question, Michelle. I’ll give you my ideas on the subject in tomorrow’s post.
Great article. As an artist I saw little details most people pay little attention to. As a new writer I find it was easier to draw them than to write them. Your article touched on a blessing and a dilemma. The world is increasingly busy. The discipline it takes sometimes to close the world out is getting more difficult. Technology has obviously increased a writer’s opportunities, but it has a down side. Glad i found your site.