Editorial Notes = clarifying information, additional insight, annotations

Hiya Reader,

I walk. A LOT. It's not only my primary form of exercise, it's how I work to detangle the constant twist of ideas in my head. Being in physical motion helps to shake loose the clarity and vocabulary I need.

A dear friend passed this information along to me. The walk would be way more than I could manage, but I like imagining the process vicariously.

The longest road in the world to walk, is from Cape Town, South Africa to Magadan, Russia. It's nearly 14,000 miles long, goes through 17 countries/six time zones/all seasons and would take a reasonably fit person the equivalent of 561 days of walking, given 8 hours per day.

Where would you pull a Forrest Gump and just stop going?

Think a friend would appreciate Editorial Notes?

Send them this link to sign up:

(And if you’re the appreciative friend, you can subscribe at the same link.)

​

Example of the Week

Sometimes this is a good example—or a great one. Sometimes this is a bad example—or just a funny blooper. Sometimes a combination. You never know.

From Muriel Spark's A Far Cry from Kensington, which I picked up just recently:

"Pisseur de copie! Hector Bartlett, it seemed to me, vomited literary matter, he urinated and sweated, he excreted it.

'Mrs Hawkins, I take incalculable pains with my prose style.'

He did indeed. The pains showed. His writing writhed and ached with twists and turns and tergiversations, inept words, fanciful repetitions, far-fetched verbosity and long Latin-based words."

May none of us be a Hector Bartlett. And may all of us know the meaning of such wonderful words as tergiversations. Pretty sure that one didn't show up on my weekly Language Arts quiz in junior high.

Actionable Tip of the Week

A trick to add to your self-editing toolbox right now!

In my student years, I wrote a scene of dialogue that, to my mind, showed how smart and interesting the characters were. The philosophical musings pleased me to no end (ah, youth). At the request of a more experienced and accomplished (but still a student) writer (let's call him Tom Smith), I showed him my draft. His response: "Nobody talks like this unless they're Tom Smith."

​Read the full article for a nifty dialogue tip here.​

Reader Question of the Week

Sarah wrote: In your experience, what separates a good writer from a great one?

Sarah! What a challenging question. I've started to type several sentences, each answering in a different way, only to delete each one. So here's my stab at a satisfactory response.

We all have different ideas about what qualifies someone as a good writer, from storytelling ability to clarity of thought. But great? Well, what similarity do "the greats" of diverse areas have? I'll name just a few.

• In sports: Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Babe Ruth
• In acting: Meryl Streep, Daniel Day-Lewis, Sidney Poitier
• In singing: Frank Sinatra, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson
• In painting: Rembrandt, Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O'Keefe
• In leadership: Martin Luther King Jr, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi

Among all the other talented, intelligent, mesmerizing, and extraordinary practitioners there are and have ever been in each category, what defines the few people as truly great is a quality that's often hard to pinpoint. "You know it when you see it."

F. Murray Abraham's portrayal of Solieri to Tom Hulce's Mozart in the 1984 movie Amadeus is a good example. Solieri the character is himself a prolific and accomplished composer. Let's say, he's a good composer. But Mozart? A genius. Exceptionally gifted. There is no list of the most superlative composers in history on which his name does not appear. It seems far too little to say, a great composer.

When I read a writer whose words fill me with awe in the truest sense of the word, a writer whose language is exquisite yet simple, perfect, a writer whose writing I both aspire to and understand I'll never equal, I know I'm in the presence of greatness. Like student artists with their sketchpads or easels on the floor before a museum master work, I study how they do what they do.

But even then, it's not just a nuts and bolts step by step. Greatness is ineffable. It doesn't always have a how.

Reader, what's YOUR answer? What separates a great writer from a good one? Respond to this email and let me know what you think!

​

Want to Submit a Reader Question to Helene?

Give in to the urge.

​

Links of the Week

Tired of seeing the same sites over and over again in your Internet search? Even if they aren't all the same, they may as well be. SEO is important for a business' visibility, sure, but sometimes you want better or just more interesting information.

​Check out Million Short, an ad-free search engine that will remove the first 100 to 1,000,000 sites at your request. It's awesome. To see just how awesome, do a Google search, then try the same search on Million Short.

And as someone with very strong opinions about fonts, I can't help but include this wonderful wonky explanation of what's wrong with the kerning on Pope Francis' tomb.
​
​

I ❤️ Hearing from You!

Comments? Just reply to this email or click this link. I respond to every email—that's a promise.

Thanks for reading!

~Helene, your writing sherpa

​

P.S. Answers to your burning questions!

Mark your calendars for May 28 at 3pm EST: I'm holding a LIVE Ask Me Anything for all your editing questions!

Go to the link to register for the session and type your question! The session will be recorded and sent to all registrants, so no worries if you can't make the call live (but I sure hope to see you).

Don't have a question but want to attend? Please sign up!

Nothing is for sale. This is a free event offered to subscribers. Have a friend who'd benefit? Send them the link to subscribe and then they can register.

​

​

​