05 May, 2006

I really don't have time to do this right now but I got so excited reading this I simply had to pass it on ASAP.
You know how I have this interest in passionate people? Well I do. I'll tell anyone, if you're passionate about something, I'll like you. (And if you're funny, well that's just an added perk.)
I was just reading in my writing book and this excerpt reveals that I am not the only one who finds an interest in passionate people. Zinnser says that passionate people make boring things interesting things. Here's what he has to say:

"Get people talking. Learn to ask questions that will elicit answers about what is most interesting or vivid in their lives. Nothing so animates writing as someone telling what he thinks or what he does--in his own words.
His own words will always be better than your words, even if you are the most elegant stylist in the land. They carry the inflection of his speaking voice and the idiosyncrasies of how he puts a sentence together. They contain the regionalisms of his conversation and the lingo of his trade. They convey his enthusiasms. This is a person talking to the reader directly, not through the filter of a writer. As soon as a writer steps in, everyone else's experience becomes secondhand.
Therefore learn how to conduct an interview. Often you'll find yourself embarking on an article so apparently life less that you will quail at the prospect of keeping your readers, or even yourself, awake.
Take heart. You'll find the solution if you look for the human element. Somewhere in every drab institution are men and women who have a fierce attachment to what they are doing and are rich repositories of lore. Find these people to tell your story and it won't be drab."

Don't you love it??? This proves the point that at the heart of everything is humanity. It goes to show that no big institution, or company, or university, or church is simply that--but they are all made up of people. Individuals with their own stories, personalities, passions, and spirits. And the even cooler thing?? Jesus Christ died for each of them. The one with the most boring, day in day out, monotonous job. And the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military in the world. The grandma who has been virtually forgotten and watches soap operas all day, and the vagabond 22 year old traveling the world.
This world is made up of millions, well, billions of individuals who have their own stories. And they are all passionately loved by a creator savior.

That is something worth writing about.

1 comment:

Joshua Longbrake said...

i'm passionate about cheese, especially a cheese toasty. delicious.