Self-help book for nonfiction writers wins plaudits from fiction writers

Online, April 8, 2010 (Newswire.com) - A new book designed to help students, business executives and professionals improve their expository (nonfiction) writing has won surprise plaudits from authors of fiction.

Titled The Gettysburg Approach to Writing & Speaking like a Professional, the book proposes an innovative new approach to expository (nonfiction) writing and public speaking. When a preview copy was inadvertently sent to a website for fiction writers, Margie Lawson, the site's owner, immediately saw its potential for her readers and invited the author, Philip Yaffe, for a "webinar", an interactive online interview.

Margie Lawson is a psychologist, university lecturer, and creative writing consultant. Philip Yaffe is a former reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal and a long-time international marketing communication executive, living in Brussels, Belgium,

The webinar took place in two parts. Several days ahead of time, Ms. Lawson emailed Mr. Yaffe a list of questions to which he emailed back the answers. When the interview went "live", the questions and answers were posted. The participants then had 24 hours to email in their own questions, to which Mr. Yaffe responded.

Introducing the webinar, Ms. Lawson noted that most fiction writers will probably never have heard of Philip Yaffe. "However, I want you all to add clarity to your writing. Whether you are writing your novel, a press release, an article, or a bio, clarity is essential. His book, The Gettysburg Approach to Writing & Speaking like a Professional, teaches you how to make your writing clear. Philip Yaffe is brilliant!"

The ideas that attracted most comment were Mr. Yaffe's mathematical formulas for ensuring clarity and conciseness.

"Everyone preaches clarity and conciseness, but these concepts are fuzzy and subjective. These formulas are more precise and quasi-objective. For the first time, they offer a kind of recipe for writing clearly and concisely as you go along, then a way to test your first draft to see if you have actually achieved the goal," Mr. Yaffe says. "If your first draft passes the test, then -- and only then -- should you start trimming and polishing to make an already good text even better. If it fails the test, then you need to do some serious revising," he counsels.

Another intriguing aspect of the webinar was Mr. Yaffe's thoughts on "mind control."

"Let's not be embarrassed by the term mind control," Mr. Yaffe says, "because this is precisely what the good writer wants to achieve. He needs for the reader's mind to go only where he directs it and nowhere else. If your reader's mind doesn't go where you want it to go, your text is flawed, be it fiction or non-fiction."

There are various artifices the writer can use to establish and maintain mind control. "But these are just tricks. The crucial thing is that the objective of mind control should underlie every word, every sentence, every paragraph, every passage, every chapter you write. This is what good writers do unconsciously. However occasionally, and especially when editing, you should check you text consciously. Anywhere you find that mind control may be slipping away, revise," he admonishes.

It is often assumed that nonfiction writing should be clear, concise, and straight to the point, while a fiction has the luxury of being less clear and concise, and can engage in frequent meanders in order to establish mood and character.

"This is false. Fiction gives no more latitude to be sloppy and waste words than does nonfiction. Any word, phrase sentence, or paragraph that does not advance the story becomes a drag on it," Mr. Yaffe asserts.

"Many fiction writers could significantly benefit from understanding the principles and techniques used by nonfiction writers, because underneath good writing is good writing, whatever the genre," he concludes.

Here are some of the comments the webinar evoked:

"I have read in other help books to eliminate unnecessary words but they way that you explain it really illuminated the idea. Thank you for the great information!"

"Your analysis of how to make our writing clear, concise, and dense (factual) is the best I've read or heard. This is very timely as I'm editing my novel now and will be using your formulas. Thanks for being a guest on Margie's blog,"

"Since I fluctuate between writing fiction and professional writing, this is going to help."

"Thanks for being on Margie's blog and sharing this valuable information with us! I very much liked the mathematical formulas."

"I was amazed how a few concise principles managed to move my perspective on writing."

Biographical Information

Philip Yaffe was born in Boston in 1942 and grew up in Los Angeles. In 1965 he graduated in mathematics from UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles), where he was also editor-in-chief of the Daily Bruin, the daily student newspaper.

Mr. Yaffe has more than 40 years of experience in journalism and marketing communication. At various points in his career, he has been a teacher of journalism, a reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal, an account executive with a major international press relations agency, European marketing communication director with two major international companies, and a founding partner of a marketing communication agency in Brussels, Belgium, where he has lived since 1974.

He can be reached either at [email protected] or [email protected].