Writing that stands on its own

I’ve read several books recently about writing. One idea that stood out to me is that we need “to write as if your sentences will be orphaned.”¹

“Once our sentences are written and sent out into the world to be read, they are on their own. Most of us cling to a residual belief that we will still be there, hovering over the reader as she reads, to explain, when she stumbles over our words, what we really meant. We won’t. . . . Writing a sentence is . . . hard because you have to arrange them in such a way that they can be deciphered in your absence.”²

Of course, the idea that sentences are orphans is an exaggeration. Sentences are generally read in the context of other sentences. Yet how often have you wished you could go with your writing to explain it to readers and to answer their questions? The reality is that we can’t. Most of the time our writing needs to stand on its own, without us.

This is where we need to be especially aware of our audience. What will they understand? What will they stumble over? That’s not always easy to figure out, especially if we’re writing for a magazine like Japan Harvest, where the audience comes from a myriad of cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

So how do we figure out if our writing is going to be understood by others? Here are some ideas:

• Ask another person, perhaps one who somewhat represents your intended audience, to read what you’ve written and give you honest feedback. A couple of years ago, I edited a fiction book about a military chaplain. I gave a lot of feedback to the author, a former military chaplain, about what a civilian audience would probably not understand.
• Read your work out loud. This is a good way to figure out where a reader might stumble, where further explanation is required, or where a different word or phrase would work better.
• Grow your own understanding of what words and phrases are used and understood by people in your audience. Naturally, this is easier if your audience uses the same English as you. If you are writing a prayer letter, it’s worth remembering that your audience possibly won’t understand the common Japanese phrases you use with other missionaries here.
• Read books, articles, and other writing from different cultural perspectives. Be sure to read current writing, not just writing from several decades ago, so that you get a sense of what is current English.
• Read across different genres. If you spend a lot of your time reading theological or academic writing, you will probably struggle to write something in a different genre (like an article for Japan Harvest or a prayer letter).
• Stay away from colloquial phraseology and words that are narrow in usage. For example, an international audience would probably struggle if I write “I went down to Bunnings for a sausage sizzle.” Better writing might be “I went to a fundraiser where they were selling barbecued sausages on bread.”
• Anticipate your readers’ questions and answer them early rather than leave them wondering. For example, at the start of this article, I didn’t tell you the names of all the books I’ve read, nor why I’ve been reading them. I got straight to the point I wanted to make.
• Use straightforward language and shorter, rather than longer, sentences. Shorter sentences are easier to get right and easier to read.

Writing is an intimate act, and publishing it can feel like you lose control of your words. Therefore, we need to do our best to ensure that our writing will be understood by most people who happen upon it.

1. Verlyn Klinkenborg, “The Trouble with Intentions,” New York Times, https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/the-trouble-with-intentions/ (September 24, 2012).
2. Joe Moran, First You Write a Sentence. : The Elements of Reading, Writing . . . and Life (London: Viking, 2018), 24–25.