Which way your sentences are branching? Right or Left?

© Ugur Akinci

Try right-branching sentences in your writing for higher comprehension.

Right-branching sentences start with the SUBJECT, follow it with PRIMARY VERB (or sometimes the other way around if the verb is in imperative/order mode), and then end with modifiers and other relevant information. What branches off to the right of the subject and the verb is all the additional information you want to get across.

For example, here is a RIGHT-branching sentence:

"You need to access the control panel to rewire the card reader."

SUBJECT ("You") + PRIMARY VERB ("access") + the rest.

Here is the LEFT-branching equivalent of the same sentence:

"To rewire the control panel you need to access the control panel."

SECONDARY VERB ("rewire") + DIRECT OBJECT ("control panel") + the rest.

Which one you think is easier to understand and remember?

 

Here is another example of a RIGHT-branching sentence:

"Check the voltage before connecting the alarm module."

PRIMARY VERB ("check") + SUBJECT ("you" implicit in the imperative form of the verb "to check") + the rest.

And here is its LEFT-branching equivalent:

"Before you connect the alarm module check the voltage."

SUBJECT ("you") + SECONDARY VERB ("connect") + SECONDARY OBJECT ("alarm module") + the rest.

Right-branching sentences say the most important things upfront, right away. They are immediately satisfying and relaxing structures.

In contrast, there's a tension in left-branching sentences since the most important information is held off from the reader until the end of the sentence.

Three Levels of Writing

LEVEL ONE

First level is writing for business communication, academic or scientific communication, or cash. Take me, for example. I’m a technical writer. I write for money because that’s the main source of income for my family. I’d never write a user’s manual or a system admin guide if I were not paid for. Would you?

When you write a memo, a conference brief, an annual report, or a press release, when you write the rules and regulations for your department, when we write an email to answer someone, they all fall into this first category of non-personal cerebral writing mixed up with a lot of procedural explanations and directions. It’s writing from the head.

This type of writing does not have "fire juice," however it’s still necessary that we produce this kind of prose. All dishes don’t have pepper in them but we need our morning cereal to start the day. We need to have well-written traffic signs to get to where we’re going.

LEVEL TWO

The second level gets personal in a hurry. I call this “Hurt Locker” Writing. This is where all the hurt comes out. If you don’t have that kind of hurt in your basement, you’ll never be attracted to writing as an art form and obsession anyways. The fact that you are reading this is proof enough that you’ve got some of that hurt in you.

It could be your parents, something from your childhood, teenage years, something to do with your siblings, spouse, a great loss, love spurned and rebuffed, a great injustice done to you or those you love, or a self-imposed limitation that’s commonly referred to as “low self-esteem”… It could be a terrible physical ailment… It’s an endless list. It’s the Three-Act Dramatic Conflict territory. Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman."

James Patterson

This kind of hurt is high-octane fuel for our writing. I have this too of course. If I could store my hurt feelings in a suitcase, I’d probably need an airplane hangar to store all my luggage. 

At its best, this is the kind of writing that produces a Charles Bukowski, a Dostoevsky,  a Stephen King, or a Kafka.

Most top-notch comedians write at this level. They just dish it out and get back even with their demons.

Consider yourself lucky if you can sit down and write 5 minutes a day, every day, at this level. Put your hurt on paper and soon enough the trickle will become a raging river and you’ll be on your way, flying over the rapids of your soul, trying to relive and recover the innocence of a childhood lost. It’s the classic writer’s journey to redemption through  licking your own wounds.

Yet this level is still very ego-centered. It’s still all about me, me, and still ME! The Beatles had a song called “I  Me Mine,” remember that one?

LEVEL THREE

Leo Buscaglia

The third level is for those who are a bit sick and tired of raging day and night at the second level. It’s the dawn of compassion and forgiveness. It’s realizing that the bastards who gave you so much pain and grief were in pain too. It’s realizing that perhaps, just perhaps, the words can bring light and defy gravity in addition to dressing your wounds and evening out the score.

At this level we see Leo Buscaglia’s of this world. We see Dalai Lama, Kabir, and Rumi. We see John Steinbeck of “Of Mice and Men”. At this level we are graced with Yann Martel's astonishing “Life of Pi.”

We have goose bumps at this new orbit of compassion and eventually tears start to flow. We pick up that phone and call our mother or father or a sibling to say “how are you?”, to say “forgive me, I’ve forgiven you and I love you.” This is the level of deep unconditional true love. This is where we recover our lost humanity and start on our journey towards true redemption and spiritual freedom.

THE SECRET

But here is the secret: without spending time at level one you probably will never make it to the second level. And without years of struggling at the second level, you’ll probably never make it to the third level.

As I write these lines I’m struggling hard to make my way from the second to the third level even though from a commercial point of view I’m firmly established at the first level as a technical writer. But I’ve got tons of poems, short stories, essays, thousands of blog posts and ezine letters, and a couple feature screenplays, none produced, none paid for, but all written with a lot of guts and blood, fear and anger. Pure second level output.

Now I feel drawn by a current invisible towards that third level of writing. This very piece you’re reading is part of this urge to share love at a higher level with all those who can appreciate it. I’m drawn towards oxygen and heaven. Something in me says that’s the only kind of writing that really matters from now on. I love to read a quick James Patterson thriller. It’s instant fun. It’s a quick fix for a three hour flight to anywhere. But it’s pure second level writing that I’m slowly losing interest in.

So take inventory of your writing today. At which level are you? At least get a foothold at the first level then push that heavy door into the second level (by just writing 5 minutes day, every day) so that one day you may grow wings and lift off towards other levels of writing and serving our wounded world.

Honor Your Voice

You're not Jerry Seinfeld and will never be. You're not Louis CK either and never will be. So what are you going to do? How are you ever going to write comedy?

You're not J.K. Rowling. You're not Maya Angelou. And will never be. So what are you gonna do about it? How are you ever going to write a children's fable or a poem?

Simple - you'll be you because all those famous writers cannot and could not be you either.

You have your own voice; they have theirs. And it all works.

Comedian Bill Burr mentions an episode in which he shared the stage with Jerry Seinfeld, his God of Comedy. He opened before him. So he wanted to make the best impression on King of Comedy and since Seinfeld was going to follow him, he did not want to create a negative impression or an off-key atmosphere as the King waited in the green room for his turn.

But Bill Burr being who he is of course ended up using one "fuck" after another during his routine. That's his voice. He is not doing that to impress anyone. That's the way he writes and thinks. In contrast, of course Seinfeld is known for his clean act with no obscenities at all.

After Burr completed his act he shook Seinfeld's hand in the backstage and wondered if he ruined everything for Seinfeld  by his obscenity-laden act (which, by the way, killed the audience). Seinfeld simply said "I don't care" and congratulated Burr for a job well done. At that point Burr realized that he had his own voice, and Jerry Seinfeld had his. What mattered was the TRUTH behind their writing. That's what always resonates with an audience. The audience is there to hear the ugly uncomfortable terrible TRUTH in one way or another. If your voice is authentic, they'll see the integrity in your wiring and delivery right away. Otherwise they'll smell you out as an impostor, as a wannabe.

So be true to yourself and honor that natural voice inside you. If you want to use obscenities, go ahead and use it in your work provided that's who you really are. If you are dropping the F-bomb every second because that's how Bill Burr or Chris Rock or Louis CK write and talk, you are in for a deep disappointment because it's not going to work. Your writing will be stilted, unnatural, and the red flags will go up at every word and syllable.

Be yourself because that's all you've got, and that's plenty!  Love and honor your voice and write the way you are. Success depends on many factors in life, especially material success. But at least preserve your self-love and dignity and maintain that inner poise, that central rock of your identity, and be a witness to the miracle of your temporary existence here on planet earth.

Your voice, the way you write and think naturally, is your treasure. Lucky you!

Write Like You Cook

© Ugur Akinci

Do you cook everyday? I use the verb “cooking” in the sense of “eating.” Putting cereal in a bowl and pouring milk over it is "cooking" too in a way. I’m sure you cook everyday.

Do you get paid every time you cook? I’m certain 99.99% of us do not get paid for cooking but we still cook everyday, don’t we? Our life and existence depends on cooking nonstop, whether we get paid for it or not.

Do we get recognized, applauded and interviewed for cooking everyday? Again, I’m sure 99.99% of us cook in absolute anonymity. The news of all the cooking we ever do gets discarded straight into that infinite “Thrash Bin of History for Immediately Forgotten Acts.”

But we still cook because we have to, we need to, or otherwise we wouldn't survive.

Even though 99.99% of us are not professional chefs, 100% of us are amateur and life-time cooks. We prepare food without fail, every day, no matter if we are happy or depressed, no matter if we are employed or in between jobs. We cook when we are healthy. We cook (or someone do it for us) when we are sick. It’s a constant, like the speed of light and force of gravity.

That, my friends, is how I write, everyday. I write on my laptop. I write a sentence or two, a paragraph, a joke, or sometimes a whole short story that I later on don’t like and wonder how on earth I could create such a lousy piece.  I write how I feel on a particular day, talking to myself, and especially if I’m feeling blue.

I write on pieces of yellow stick-em papers and restaurant napkins. I write in small spiraled notebooks that fit into my back pocket. I write in school notebooks with ruling, without ruling, or notebooks made up of graph paper with small squares.

I write to survive, to breathe, to exist on this earth even though 99.99% of the time I’m not paid for it and no one knows that I’m writing, except perhaps my wife who from time to time finds one of my many notebooks lying out on the dinner table or some other inappropriate place, filled with my crazy urgent jumping handwriting and in different pen colors and line widths, and she asks: “What’s this? Do you need it?” Yes my love, yes and thousands times yesss! Not only I need it, I can’t survive without it! Please don't throw it away, yet.

And once in a great while, out of all that mass of totally private chopping and flipping and sauteing, as if a mountain of black coal crushing under its own weight and creating a tiny one carat diamond at the very bottom, after hundreds of pages, something really exquisite sparkles and floats in front of me, defying gravity!

Ahhh… what a magical moment that is because even though half of my brain knows that I did create it, the other half says: “No way! Who created this thing?” The results of daily writing is no less miraculous than daily cooking. It nourishes us, keeps us sane and keeps us growing, and once in a while it shoots up the magic that makes all this life worth living for.

Do it 5 minutes everyday. Write for 5 minutes. Like grabbing a handful of peanuts and wolfing it down with a glass of orange juice. If you can snack for 5 minutes, you can also write for 5 minutes.

If you don’t have access to paper, write in your palm like we used to do when we were children. Write an email. Send yourself a text message. Write inside the cover page of a printed book and tear that page to save it if you have to. Once I wrote a poem in the margins of a phone-book  But do it everyday, three times a day, just like you eat three times between sun up and sun down.

Write like you cook. Your life depends on them both.

Throw Away All That Old Stuff!

Last week I started to clean up my house. I was amazed at the amount, variety, and sheer nonsense of the garbage that collected over years and decades!

The more I threw away old clippings, folders containing yellowed-out articles on subjects that I haven't even thought about for years, business and Rolodex cards (yes, once upon a time we used to use something called a Rolodex!) and phone books with names that are buried deep in my distant past, the more I threw them away without mercy and by fighting that ever-present impulse to keep and preserve things, the better I felt.

The urge to hoard is as strong as the urge to drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes I suppose. I had never been a drinker but I used to smoke over a pack a day when I quit over twenty-some years ago. So I remember that crazy urge to light up one and take a deep breath and feel the bubbles of withdrawal perk up to the surface with delight, burst with a pop that always translated to a universal "...aaaahhh!"  

Keeping things forever has that kind of resonance for me. It's that kind of almost-biological need and insecurity, rolled up into one.

But do we need air in our lives or not? If yes, then we need to quit hoarding like we need to quit smoking.

Do we need light - clear, brilliant, resonating musical light? Then we need to throw away all the dust-collectors in the second floor, basement and attic just like we need to throw away all those bottles that gave us nothing but temporary hope, at best.

As writers, we need clear our space before we can clear our heads. We need to go for the simple, few, and clean. Above all, we need to have the faith and courage in our inner resources that it won't be the end of the world if we threw away old stuff that we haven't touched for decades. We need to have full faith in our creativity and inner resources. Otherwise the old will keep gathering huge balls of dust and dirt in the heart of our homes and soul. It'll cripple us.

I wish you clear days of courage and faith without the burden of a past that we have no need for anymore.

(Image courtesy of WIkipedia)

Productivity Tools for Writers from BlueHost

© Ugur Akinci

BlueHost is one of those web hosting companies that I like and use. I do have a couple web sites on Bluehost and had no problems in the past. They provide great customer service 24-7 whenever I have any issues.
 
BlueHost continues to impress with the three new productivity tools collectively known as the BigSenders package. If you have a BlueHost account, you can do the following as a BigSender:

• Easily send Large Files without FTP. Send photos, home videos, graphics, contracts, and more.
• Send Certified Emails. You will receive confirmation when your files and important emails are delivered.
• Send Certified Invoices. This way you don't have to worry whether your invoice is received or not. If the invoice is downloaded but not opened, you can follow it up with reminder emails.
• Send Encrypted Files. Not only are your files secure, you decide who sees them.

Ideas -- Can They Be Stolen?

Do you worry that someone will steal your ideas and run away with them? Don't worry -- short of outright plagiarism, no one can do that because only YOU can write the book or article with your views, experience, and view point. Only you can be you.