Have you ever wanted to forgive but just didn’t know how to free yourself from the chains of bitterness?  A 2 part lecture on November 11^th and 18^th, Wednesday nights at 6:30pm is being offered by a member who developed a 7 step Forgiveness Program.  Pre-registration is requested for seating numbers; walk-ins are welcome (929-4204).  Non-mandatory free will offering.

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by Philip Yaffe

Part 7 of an occasional series

I am a collector of quotations. I have been ever since I learned how to write, I mean professionally, not in primary school.

I am particularly fond of what I like to call “pithy prose”. These short quotations can cover an unlimited variety of subjects: love, religion, politics, human nature, etc. What unites them is their ability to say more in one or two sentences than could be expressed in a thousand-word treatise. It’s like being able to pour a liter of liquid into a half-liter bottle.

They are superb examples of Mark Twain’s famous dictum, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”

In principle, all writers and public speakers are capable of producing pithy prose, but clearly some are better at it than others.

Any collection of pithy prose must necessarily be biased in terms of what it includes and excludes. I make no apologies for my selections, only for the hundreds of other meritorious quotations I had to leave out.

No one will agree with all these quotations; this was not their intention. You may even find some of them repugnant or outrageous. This was their intention.

We seldom learn anything of value from what we already agree with. Only those ideas that grate on our nerves can open our minds. As with oysters, irritation can produce pearls. So if anything you are about to read annoys or shocks you, try to think clearly and dispassionately about what it is saying. You will either be confirmed in your current belief or shaken into re-examining it.

Either way, you win!

This article is part of an occasional series. In each article, I will be offering more amusing, educating, and exasperating quotations to your judgment. But just to be certain that we agree on what we are talking about, here it is in a nutshell.

Pithy Prose: A quotation where at first you may not be quite certain what it means. But when you become certain, you become equally certain that it couldn’t have been said better any other way. In short, big ideas in small packages.

If you have a better definition of pithy prose, please contact me. I would love to hear it.

Who Are These People Named “Anon”?

Some people, such as Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain, are pithy prose factories. During their careers they produced hundreds of quotations well worth remembering. Others produced only a handful, but these too are well worth preserving.

Another major treasure trove of pithy prose is “Anonymous”. The origin of these witty, insightful quotations is either doubtful or unknown, yet they keep on working their magic year after year, decade after decade, and even century after century. They are eternal proof that if you don’t know who said something of value, it doesn’t really matter. The source of a bit of timeless wit and wisdom is not important, only what it conveys.

A bore is someone who persists in holding his own views after we have enlightened him with ours.

Always borrow money from a pessimist; they don’t expect to be paid back.

Anarchy may not be the best form of government, but it’s better than no government at all.

An expert is a person who avoids the small errors while sweeping on to the grand fallacy.

Anyone can count the seeds in an apple. No one can count the apples in a seed.

Artificial Intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

As a general rule, the freedom of any people can be judged by the volume of their laughter.

Bumper sticker: Please don’t ride my tail; I have hemorrhoids

Certainty is the vilest form of cowardice because it disguises our fear of learning.

Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners.

Choosing between two absurdities shows not strength of character but weakness of mind.

Computers are not intelligent. They only think they are.

Conscience is what hurts when everything else feels so good.

Consciousness is when you are aware of something. Conscience is when you wish you weren’t.

Conspiracy theories are the best kind. Any credible criticism of it is simply made part of the conspiracy, which never ceases to grow.

Do not follow where the path may lead …. go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Don’t have a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.

Doubt makes me uncomfortable; certainty makes me even more so.

Every revolutionary idea – in science, politics, art, or whatever – evokes three stages of reaction in a hearer:

1. It is completely impossible — don’t waste my time.

2. It is possible, but it is not worth doing.

3. I said it was a good idea all along.

Every time history repeats itself the price goes up.

The goal of science is to build a better mousetrap. The goal of nature is to build better mice.

God cannot be omniscient; otherwise He would never have produced a creature as imperfect as Man.

Good judgment comes from experience. And experience — well, that comes from poor judgment.

The high cost of living hasn’t affected its popularity.

I have no doubt that I am right, but I have no right not to doubt.

I know what I know; stop trying to confuse me with the facts.

I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.

If the universe was made for Man, why is it so big and everything so far away?

If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t there more happy people?

If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn’t.

If you value your friends, don’t listen too carefully to what they say. Nothing infuriates people more than being undone by their own logic.

Intelligence is inversely proportional to the ability to admit ignorance.

Is the glass half empty, half full, or twice as large as it needs to be?

It’s hard to make a program foolproof because fools are so ingenious.

It takes a strong will to live with doubt.

Just because your doctor has a name for your condition doesn’t mean he knows what it is.

Keep your head and your heart going in the right direction and you will not have to worry about your feet.

Lord save me from your followers.

The light at the end of the tunnel is usually a “No Exit” sign.

The more you complain, the longer God lets you live.

Minds are like parachutes — they function only when open.

Never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity.

Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most.

The one who says it cannot be done should never interrupt the one who is doing it.

The only thing certain in life is death, taxes, and doubt. We accept death and taxes, but doubt is forever under attack.

People seldom know what they want until you give them what they ask for.

People with narrow minds usually have broad tongues.

Science doesn’t make God obsolete, but it does make religion ridiculous.

Sorry, but my karma just ran over your dogma.

Success in marriage is not so much finding the right person as it is being the right person.

The man who knows little and is aware of it knows more than most.

The most intelligent people are those who can most easily say “I don’t know.”

The strongest evidence that God doesn’t exist is the fact that Man does.

There has been an alarming increase in the number of things you know nothing about.

Today is the tomorrow that yesterday seemed so far away

To believe in God and to practice a religion are not the same; they are contradictory.

To confess ignorance is to confess knowledge.

To influence people, first join them where they are, then lead them to where you think they ought to be

When all else fails, read the instructions.

While most peoples’ opinions change, the conviction of their correctness never does.

You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely.

You can only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.

We cannot always know what we don’t know, but we can always know that we don’t know nearly enough.

Why is monotheism considered an advance over polytheism? Surely the democracy of many gods is preferable to the autocracy of a single god, so if one disappoints you can always turn to another.

Yesterday’s heresy is today’s orthodoxy and tomorrow’s relic. The more relics we amass, the closer we are to truth.

Previously in this Series

Part 1: Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of Mark Twain

Part 2: Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of Oscar Wilde

Part 3: Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of People Named “W”

Part 4: Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of Anatole France

Part 5: Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of Ambrose Bierce

Part 6: Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of Friedrich Nietzsche

Philip Yaffe is a former reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal and a marketing communication consultant. He currently teaches a course in good writing and good speaking in Brussels, Belgium. His recently published book In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Almost) like a Professional is available from Story Publishers in Ghent, Belgium (storypublishers.be) and Amazon (amazon.com).

For further information, contact:

Philip Yaffe
Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)2 660 0405
phil.yaffe@yahoo.com, phil.yaffe@gmail.com

Part 5 of an occasional series

I am a collector of quotations. I have been ever since I learned how to write, I mean professionally, not in primary school.

I am particularly fond of what I like to call “pithy prose”. These short quotations can cover an unlimited variety of subjects: love, religion, politics, human nature, etc. What unites them is their ability to say more in one or two sentences than could be expressed in a thousand-word treatise. It’s like being able to pour a liter of liquid into a half-liter bottle.

They are superb examples of Mark Twain’s famous dictum, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”

In principle, all writers and public speakers are capable of producing pithy prose, but clearly some are better at it than others.

Any collection of pithy prose must necessarily be biased in terms of what it includes and excludes. I make no apologies for my selections, only for the hundreds of other meritorious quotations I had to leave out.

No one will agree with all these quotations; this was not their intention. You may even find some of them repugnant or outrageous. This was their intention.

We seldom learn anything of value from what we already agree with. Only those ideas that grate on our nerves can open our minds. As with oysters, irritation can produce pearls. So if anything you are about to read annoys or shocks you, try to think clearly and dispassionately about what it is saying. You will either be confirmed in your current belief or shaken into re-examining it.

Either way, you win!

This article is part of an occasional series. In each article, I will be offering more amusing, educating, and exasperating quotations to your judgment. But just to be certain that we agree on what we are talking about, here it is in a nutshell.

Pithy Prose: A quotation where at first you may not be quite certain what it means. But when you become certain, you become equally certain that it couldn’t have been said better any other way. In short, big ideas in small packages.

If you have a better definition of pithy prose, please contact me. I would love to hear it.

Who Is Ambrose Bierce?

Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914), whose full name was Ambrose Gwinnet Bierce, was an American journalist and author. He is best remembered for “The Devil’s Dictionary”. Bierce started developing his insightful and idiosyncratic definitions in a weekly newspaper column in 1881; they were published in book form in 1906. “The Devil’s Dictionary” was originally titled “The Cynic’s Word Book” (see definition of cynic below). Bierce was also a prolific author of short stories, sometimes humorous, sometimes macabre.

1. Abstainer: A weak man who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure

2. Absurdity: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one’s own opinion.

3. Acquaintance: A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.

4. Admiration: Our polite recognition of another’s resemblance to ourselves.

5. Amnesty: The state’s magnanimity to those offenders whom it would be too expensive to punish.

6. Egotist: A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.

7. Beauty: The power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband.

8. Bigot: One who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain.

9. Bore: A person who talks when you wish him to listen.

10. Conservative: A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from a Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.

11. Consult: To seek approval for a course of action already decided upon.

12. Cynic: A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.

13. Deliberation: The act of examining one’s bread to determine which side it is buttered on.

14. Destiny: A tyrant’s authority for crime and a fool’s excuse for failure.

15. Edible: Good to eat and wholesome to digest, as a worm to a toad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a man to a worm.

16. Education: That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.

17. Egotist: A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.

18. Erudition: Dust shaken out of a book into an empty skull.

19. Eulogy: Praise of a person who has either the advantages of wealth and power, or the consideration to be dead.

20. Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.

21. Happiness: An agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.

22. Historian: A broad-gauge gossip.

23. History: An account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.

24. Impartial: Unable to perceive any promise of personal advantage from espousing either side of a controversy.

25. Impiety: Your irreverence toward my deity.

26. Inventor: A person who makes an ingenious arrangement of wheels, levers and springs, and believes it civilization.

27. Jealous: Unduly concerned about the preservation of that which can be lost only if not worth keeping.

28. Laziness: Unwarranted repose of manner in a person of low degree.

29. Learning: The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious.

30. Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage.

31. Mad: Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence.

32. Marriage: The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress, and two slaves, making in all, two.

33. Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.

34. Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man – who has no gills.

35. Patience: A minor form of despair disguised as a virtue.

36. Politeness: The most acceptable hypocrisy.

37. Positive: Mistaken at the top of one’s voice.

38. Pray: To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.

39. Prejudice: A vagrant opinion without visible means of support.

40. Revolution: In politics, an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.

41. Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.

42. Success is the one unpardonable sin against our fellows.

43. Sweater: A garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.

44. The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them up.

45. There are four kinds of homicide; felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy.

46. To apologize is to lay the foundation for a future offense.

47. Who never doubted, never half believed. Where doubt is, there truth is – it is her shadow.

Previously in this Series

Part 1: Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of Mark Twain

Part 2: Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of Oscar Wilde

Part 3: Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of People Named “W”

Part 4: Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of People Anatole France

Philip Yaffe is a former reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal and a marketing communication consultant. He currently teaches a course in good writing and good speaking in Brussels, Belgium. His recently published book In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Almost) like a Professional is available from Story Publishers in Ghent, Belgium (storypublishers.be) and Amazon (amazon.com).

For further information, contact:

Philip Yaffe
Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)2 660 0405
phil.yaffe@yahoo.com, phil.yaffe@gmail.com

Part 4 of an occasional series

I am a collector of quotations. I have been ever since I learned how to write, I mean professionally, not in primary school.

I am particularly fond of what I like to call “pithy prose”. These short quotations can cover an unlimited variety of subjects: love, religion, politics, human nature, etc. What unites them is their ability to say more in one or two sentences than could be expressed in a thousand-word treatise. It’s like being able to pour a liter of liquid into a half-liter bottle.

They are superb examples of Mark Twain’s famous dictum, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”

In principle, all writers and public speakers are capable of producing pithy prose, but clearly some are better at it than others.

Any collection of pithy prose must necessarily be biased in terms of what it includes and excludes. I make no apologies for my selections, only for the hundreds of other meritorious quotations I had to leave out.

No one will agree with all these quotations; this was not their intention. You may even find some of them repugnant or outrageous. This was their intention.

We seldom learn anything of value from what we already agree with. Only those ideas that grate on our nerves can open our minds. As with oysters, irritation can produce pearls. So if anything you are about to read annoys or shocks you, try to think clearly and dispassionately about what it is saying. You will either be confirmed in your current belief or shaken into re-examining it.

Either way, you win!

This article is part of an occasional series. In each article, I will be offering more amusing, educating, and exasperating quotations to your judgment. But just to be certain that we agree on what we are talking about, here it is in a nutshell.

Pithy Prose: A quotation where at first you may not be quite certain what it means. But when you become certain, you become equally certain that it couldn’t have been said better any other way. In short, big ideas in small packages.

If you have a better definition of pithy prose, please contact me. I would love to hear it.

Who Is Anatole France?

Anatole France (1844 – 1924), whose real name was Jacques Anatole Thibault, was a prolific French novelists and essayist. In 1921 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his collected works.

1. A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance.

2. All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.

3. An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don’t.

4. An education which does not cultivate the will is an education that depraves the mind.

5. Chance is perhaps the pseudonym of God when he does not wish to sign his work.

6. Devout believers are safeguarded in a high degree against the risk of certain neurotic illnesses; their acceptance of the universal neurosis spares them the task of constructing a personal one.

7. Existence would be intolerable if we were never to dream.

8. History books that contain no lies are extremely dull.

9. I prefer the folly of enthusiasm to the indifference of wisdom.

10. If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.

11. Ignorance and error are necessary to life, like bread and water.

12. In art as in love, instinct is enough.

13. It is better to understand little than to misunderstand a lot.

14. It is human nature to think wisely and act in an absurd fashion.

15 It is well for the heart to be naive and the mind not to be.

16. Nine tenths of education is encouragement.

17. No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free, no one ever will.

18. Of all the sexual aberrations, chastity is the strangest.

19. Of all the ways of defining man, the worst is the one which makes him out to be a rational animal.

20. Religion has done love a great service by making it a sin.

21. That man is prudent who neither hopes nor fears anything from the uncertain events of the future.

22. The average man does not know what to do with this life, yet wants another one which will last forever.

23. The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.

24. The greatest virtue of man is perhaps curiosity.

25. The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.

26. The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.

27. There are very honest people who do not think that they have had a bargain unless they have cheated a merchant.

28. To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all.

29. Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.

30. War will disappear only when men shall take no part whatever in violence and shall be ready to suffer every persecution that their abstention will bring them. It is the only way to abolish war.

31. We reproach people for talking about themselves; but it is the subject they treat best.

32. What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster!

33. What frightens us most in a madman is his sane conversation.

34. Without lies humanity would perish of despair and boredom.

35. You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; in just the same way, you learn to love by loving.

Previously in this Series

Part 1: Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of Mark Twain

Part 2: Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of Oscar Wilde

Part 3: Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of People Named “W”

Philip Yaffe is a former reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal and a marketing communication consultant. He currently teaches a course in good writing and good speaking in Brussels, Belgium. His recently published book In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Almost) like a Professional is available from Story Publishers in Ghent, Belgium (storypublishers.be) and Amazon (amazon.com).

For further information, contact:

Philip Yaffe
Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)2 660 0405
phil.yaffe@yahoo.com, phil.yaffe@gmail.com

I have never written fiction and never intended to. My 40-year career has been in journalism and marketing communication. However, a few months ago someone who had read my book on expository (non-fiction) writing and speaking contacted me to ask if I could help her with some fiction projects. I was inclined to say “no”, because I couldn’t really see what my kind of writing had to do with hers. By chance, a few weeks earlier I had came across a compilation of comments on writing by noted novelists and was struck by the similarity of what they had to say and what I had say. So I decided to give it a try.

The lady asked me to look at a novel she had written a few years earlier. We will first analyze the prologue of the novel according to some key principles and practices of expository writing, then look at how it was revised.

But first, what are these key principles? There really are only three of them. However, if properly understood and applied, they cover most writing situations, both creative and expository.

A. Clarity Principle

Being clear is not a matter of personal appreciation. According to the clarity principle, to be clear you must do three things:

1. Emphasize what is of key importance.

2. De-emphasize what is of secondary importance.

3. Eliminate what is of no importance.

If you follow the formula, before you start writing you must first determine what is of key importance, i.e. what are the key ideas you want your readers to take away from your text?

This is not always easy. It is far simpler to say that everything is of key importance, so you put in everything you have. However, unless you do the work of defining what you really want your readers to know, they won’t do it for you. They will simply get lost in your text and either give up or come out the other end not knowing what they have read.

Next, you must be certain to de-emphasize what is of secondary importance. Why? Because if you want your readers to recognize and retain the key ideas, you don’t want them to get lost in the details. Details (information of secondary importance) explain and support the key ideas. They must never overwhelm them.

Finally, you must eliminate what is of no importance. Why? Because any information that adds nothing to explaining and supporting the key ideas will tend to obscure them. This is exactly the opposite of what you want.

B. Conciseness Principle

According to the conciseness principle, your text should be as:

1. Long as necessary

2. Short as possible

“As long as necessary” means covering all the key ideas you identified under “clarity”, and all the information of secondary importance needed to explain and support them. Note that nothing is said about the number of words, because it is irrelevant. If it takes 500 words to be “as long as necessary”, then 500 words must be used. If it takes 1500 words, then this is all right, too.

“As short as possible” means staying as close to the minimum as you can, because all words beyond the minimum tend to damage clarity. Subconsciously, readers will continually be trying to understand why those words are there, and will be continually failing because they serve no purpose.

Anything that doesn’t add to the text, subtracts from it.

C. Density Principle

According to the density principle, you text should contain:

1. Precise information

2. Logically linked

Using precise information aids clarity. For example, if you say it is a “hot” day, what do you mean? One reader might interpret hot as 24° C, while another might interpret is as 36° C. However, if you say the temperature is 28° C, there is no room for interpretation – or misinterpretation.

Using precise information also generates confidence, because it assures your readers that you really know what you are talking about. This helps to hold their attention, making it easier to get your points across.

To these three fundamental principles of expository writing, I would like to add a specific technique. Analyze each sentence or passage you write to see what question it may raise in the reader’s mind. Then answer it!

Usually these questions will be subconscious; the reader won’t even be aware of them. However, a lengthening list of “what is this?” and “why is that?” will inevitably cause the reader’s mind to wander away from what you are trying to say. When it has wandered far enough, it is unlikely to come back.

The reader will complain that the text is shallow, boring, insipid or confusing. And he will be right.

Analysis

Below you will find the “Analysis” of the prologue of the novel. For best benefit, you should probable read the text straight through, ignoring the comments in parentheses. Next, re-read with the comments. Finally, compare this original with the “Revision”, produced by applying the above principles.

The purpose of the prologue is to:

1) Introduce the principal characters

2) Outline the plot

3) Generate a sense of mystery and expectation

These are the key ideas; everything in the text should bend to them

———————————–

Aurora searched for his signal as the 737 taxied past her. (Where is she? Could she possibly be on the tarmac?). She saw nothing, but her belief didn’t waver. (Is she expecting some kind of major event?)

As the aircraft rolled almost out of sight, she noticed two distinct flashes. It was Mitch. As always, he’d remembered. Almost a year ago, they’d devised a system of code to communicate from the terminal to the plane when she’d complained that she couldn’t see in the tiny jet’s windows – a flash of his silver business card case meant that he loved her and he’d be back soon. (Hardly the major event suggested earlier.)

And she knew he would, considering the long-awaited engagement ring he’d just given her before he boarded – a solitary white diamond with heart shaped clusters on both sides and smaller diamonds embedded on the band. (Would a man really give a woman an engagement ring at an airport just before flying off to leave her for a week?)

Over fifteen minutes passed and finally the plane’s engines whined into action. Heaving greatly, the Rolls Royce motors overcame the aircraft’s stagnant weight and the immense mass accelerated down the long tarmac strip. Once having gained speed, it only took a small flick of the wing’s flaps and the steel structure effortlessly rose into the air and was magically in flight. (This seems a rather dramatic description of a plane taking off, particularly for people like Aurora and Mitch, who are used to flying. What is the purpose of this description?)

Aurora breathed a sigh of relief that was echoed by the few relatives that had remained on both sides of her – a petite woman, a young girl, a man.

The plane was away safely. (More drama about the airplane taking off. Is this paragraph really necessary?)

She dabbed her forehead with a handkerchief Mitch had given her. GMA it was initialized – Greg Mitchell Adderby – silver-haired, he was her boss, her mentor, her first real love (how old is she?). She breathed in the Antheus scent that still clung to it – his scent. Then she rubbed the sweat of her palm (still concerned about the takeoff?) against the jeans he’d bought for her at Harrods in London on their first excursion together, her first trip out of America. Ruby red denim. They were his favorite color, just like the ties he always wore. That was only a year ago.

She’d become so much a part of Mitch’s life since then, his wisdom and maturity a guide to her (how old is Mitch?). He had promised to protect her (against what?). And she marveled at the company he co-founded (with whom?), Rad Foods International, a distribution company for fresh and irradiated fruits and vegetables, a place where she could work happily, sometimes even excel.

But now he was gone. What would she do for a week? (Doesn’t she work in the company?) How she wished she hadn’t had to stay behind for the awards dinner, Young Business Designer of the Year. But she was proud of the achievement and the recognition. In his absence, Mitch had arranged for Gerard Marques, their lead salesman, to accompany her. “There’s no one else I’d rather rely on,” he had told her. (Aurora seems to have won award. For what? What kind of work does she do?)

On the plane, Mitch fumbled nervously with his briefcase (why “nervously”?). Then he stared out the window and caught a glimpse of Aurora in the oversized terminal window. Long, flowing, dark brown hair. Long waist, long, slender limbs. Even from a distance, the brightly dyed jeans and fire-engine angora sweater that clung to her svelte frame were a beacon to him. “My ray of sunshine,” he whispered, and breathed deeply, pensively. (Where is Mitch going? Where is he leaving from?)

As her tall figure dwindled to a mere dot, he took off his seatbelt and turned his neck almost backwards, straining to see her for a few more seconds.

Suddenly, the plane jerked. He was lurched abruptly, and a searing pain bolted from his head down his spine. He faced forward again and rubbed his sore neck. “Oh,” he cried, as the plane wrenched him another excruciating time, on this occurrence with even more force.

“For God sake man, get your head down,” a bearded man next to him yelled.

(Why bearded? This seems to be a gratuitous detail, shifting reader attention away from Mitch.)

“What?”

“Get your head down.”

Confused, Mitch obeyed the strict command and plunged his chest to his knees, gripping onto the silver card case through the chest pocket of his black Armani suit (is this dramatic moment an appropriate time to describe what Mitch is wearing?).

“Fire,” someone screamed from the economy section. “It’s the engine.” (Why economy section? Should we assume that Mitch is in business or first class? With the plane in crisis, does it really matter?)

“Place your head between your knees and be calm,” a shrill female voice wailed over the loudspeaker. (Would a trained stewardess “wail” in a “shrill voice”?) Her words were barely audible over the chaos.

As the aircraft reeled again, a luggage rack jarred opened above them, and a vivid fuchsia bag smashed into the aisle, its zipper bursting – bras, socks, and underwear spilling out. So steep was the jet’s angle now that the clothes tumbled down the length of the aisle with the ease of marbles. (Enumerating the contents of the bag shifts reader attention away from Mitch. Is it relevant?).

Next to Mitch, two women were sobbing hysterically. “This can’t be happening,” one screamed. (Once again, reader attention is shifted away from Mitch. Why?)

Unexpectedly, the doors of another overhead compartment swung open, this time hurling yellow cups onto the already frightened passengers (Is this sentence necessary?).

“Put on your seatbelt…” the bearded man shouted to Mitch from beside him. His hands fumbled to obey.

On the ground, Aurora swore that the plane lurched unevenly. It wasn’t ascending anymore. Suddenly, it made another wrenching motion and then pitched itself downward.

“My God,” she cried, looking fearfully at the dangerous angle. Everyone around her at the Niagara Falls terminal gaped at the scene. (Why this shift of attention away from Aurora just when it has been re-established?) The plane was only a few hundred yards off the ground, with no hope of enough room to level out for a smooth landing.

Suddenly, the aircraft tilted sideways and turned back towards the building. A colossal burst of fire spewed from the engine.

“They’re gonna die!” someone screamed.

“No!” Aurora pleaded as the metallic mass dropped to the asphalt with a force that violently quaked the ground, as if a Goliath was tumbling to earth. (This seems to be a gratuitous, distracting metaphor. Is it necessary?) The plane’s wing scraped along the airstrip with a deafening noise, and thick choking puffs spilled out of the hull.

An explosion blew out the left jet, and flames began raging.

Aurora was sure that Mitch was in one of the windows. She was with him – she envisaged the last time they’d eaten a romantic dinner together, the last time he’d snuck a kiss at work, the last time they’d made love– He was reaching out to her. (This seems a distracting interlude during a crisis. Is it necessary?)

Finally, the lamed giant skidded to a standstill on the tarmac just in front of the window where she stood.

———————————

The scene continues in very much the same manner, i.e. raising questions that aren’t being answered, unnecessary shifts of attention, distracting details, etc.

Revision of the Prologue

Here is the revision. See how application of the three expository writing principles (clarity, conciseness, density) and the question & answer technique have altered it.

——————————-

Aurora looked out of the terminal window, searching for his signal as the 737 taxied past her. She hadn’t yet seen it but she knew she would. As the aircraft rolled almost out of sight, she caught sight of what she had been waiting for, two distinct flashes. It was Mitch.

Almost a year earlier, she had complained that she couldn’t see him through the tiny jet’s windows, so they had devised their private signally system. A flash of his silver business card case meant that he loved her and would soon return.

And there it was. They had used the system many times over the past year, but this time was special. Just before boarding, he had given her what she had been praying for, an engagement ring. It was in the form of solitary white diamond with heart shaped clusters on both sides and smaller diamonds embedded on the band.

Mitch had planned to give it to her after his return, but as he said, “I just couldn’t wait.

“That was just like Mitch,” Aurora thought. Generally cool, calm and methodical, but capable of occasional flashes of appropriate spontaneity.

The moment he put it on her finger, all of Aurora‘s girlish dreams about an elegant candle-lit dinner, a romantic moonlight stroll along the river, and maybe even her suitor down on one knee, instantly vanished. Mitch was as eager as she. That was all that mattered.

At the age of 26, she had of course been in love before. But never like this. It couldn’t have been like this.

The plane rested on the tarmac a good 15 minutes. Finally, its powerful Rolls Royce engines roared into action. It began taxiing down the runway, gathering the speed necessary to lift its heavy mass into the sky.

Aurora withdrew the handkerchief Mitch had given her from her purse. It bore the initials GMA – Gregory Mitchell Adderby. She briefly pressed it to her nose and breathed in the Antheus scent that still clung to it – his scent. Oh yes, she had been in love before, but never like this.

Just over a year ago, Mitch had been only her boss, but then became her mentor, her lover. And now her soon-to-be husband.

She touched the engagement ring he had put on her slender finger less than 30 minutes ago. Each time Mitch had gone away before, the days had dragged. But how was she going to get through the coming week now.

Mitch was on his way to the Young Business Designer of the Year awards dinner in Chicago, where he was to be honored. At 31, Mitch was still a boyish-looking if silver-haired entrepreneur. Six years ago, he and a university buddy had founded Rad Foods International, a rapidly growing distribution company for fresh and irradiated fruits and vegetables. Still small compared to its competitors, the company was generally recognized a real comer and would soon take its place among the big boys.

On the plane, Mitch was at a window seat, head turned back trying to catch a last glimpse of Aurora through the oversized windows of the Niagara Falls air terminal. Flowing auburn hair, long waist, slender limbs. Even at this distance, he could make out the ruby jeans and fire-engine red angora sweater he had bought her a few weeks ago when they were in London. “My beacon, my ray of sunshine,” he whispered.

As Aurora‘s svelte figure dwindled to a dot, Mitch took off his seatbelt and started to open his briefcase. Suddenly, the plane lurched and he was thrown forward, hitting his head against the seat in front of him. He straightened up, rubbing his sore neck and just beginning to feel pain radiating down his body. The plane lurched again.

“For God sake man, get your head down!” yelled the man across the aisle.

“What?”

“Get your head down, you idiot! The plane is going to crash!”

There was no doubting the authority in the voice, so Mitch obeyed. He thrust his chest to his knees, gripping the silver card case through the chest pocket of his jacket.

“Fire! It’s the engine!” someone screamed.

Then a sturdily dispassionate but slightly wavering female voice came over the loudspeaker: “Ladies and Gentlemen, please place your head between your knees and remain calm.”

As the plane lurched again, an overhead luggage rack jarred opened. A fuchsia lady’s traveling case crashed to the floor, spilling out a rainstorm of equally colorful intimate apparel – bras, panties, stockings, nighties.

“Quite a show,” Mitch thought, trying to calm is rapidly fraying nerves. But the respite lasted only a moment.

“Put your damn seatbelt on!” thundered the man across the aisle. Mitch fumbled to comply, but never quite made it.

On the ground, Aurora was watching the scene in horror. The plane was no longer rising. Instead, it was wobbling from side to side as if trying to make up its mind which way to go. Abruptly, it pitched downward.

“Oh my God,” Aurora cried, her heart pounding and droplets of sweat pearling on her forehead.

Suddenly, there was a bright flash and a torrent of fire and smoke gushed from the plane’s fuselage.

“It’s going to crash! They’re all going to die!” someone shouted.

“No!” Aurora pleaded as the stricken aircraft plummeted out of the sky. Just before hitting the ground, the pilot regained some kind of control. He sent it along the runway. It screamed and screeched as its crippled undercarriage gouged huge trenches in the tarmac along its path.

Another explosion, more fire and smoke. Finally, the plane skidded to a stop just in front of the window where Aurora was standing.

————————————–

To answer the question at the beginning: Can the fundamental principles of non-fiction (clarity, conciseness, density) be applied to fiction? Indeed, they can. And with considerable effect. So if you have always wanted to write fiction but felt it was beyond you, why not give it a try? You may be better than you think.

Philip Yaffe is a former reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal and a marketing communication consultant. He currently teaches a course in good writing and good speaking in Brussels, Belgium. His recently published book In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Almost) like a Professional is available from Story Publishers in Ghent, Belgium (storypublishers.be) and Amazon (amazon.com).

For further information, contact:

Philip Yaffe

Brussels, Belgium

Tel: +32 (0)2 660 0405

Email: phil.yaffe@yahoo.com,phil.yaffe@gmail.com

Part 2 of an occasional series

I am a collector of quotations. I have been ever since I learned how to write, I mean professionally, not in primary school.

I am particularly fond of what I like to call “pithy prose”. These short quotations can cover an unlimited variety of subjects: love, religion, politics, human nature, etc. What unites them is their ability to say more in one or two sentences than could be expressed in a thousand-word treatise. It’s like being able to pour a liter of liquid into a half-liter bottle.

They are superb examples of Mark Twain’s famous dictum, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”

In principle, all writers and public speakers are capable of producing pithy prose, but clearly some are better at it than others.

Any collection of pithy prose must necessarily be biased in terms of what it includes and excludes. I make no apologies for my selections, only for the hundreds of other meritorious quotations I had to leave out.

No one will agree with all these quotations; this was not their intention. You may even find some of them repugnant or outrageous. This was their intention.

We seldom learn anything of value from what we already agree with. Only those ideas that grate on our nerves can open our minds. As with oysters, irritation can produce pearls. So if anything you are about to read annoys or shocks you, try to think clearly and dispassionately about what it is saying. You will either be confirmed in your current belief or shaken into re-examining it.

Either way, you win! 

This article is part of an occasional series. In each article, I will be offering more amusing, educating, and exasperating quotations to your judgment. But just to be certain that we agree on what we are talking about, here it is in a nutshell.

Pithy Prose: A quotation where at first you may not be quite certain what it means. But when you become certain, you become equally certain that it couldn’t have been said better any other way. In short, big ideas in small packages.

If you have a better definition of pithy prose, please contact me. I would love to hear it.

Who Is Oscar Wilde?

Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900), whose full name was Oscar Fingal O’Flaherty Wills Wilde, was a renowned Irish dramatist, novelist, and poet. His best known plays are “The Importance of Being Earnest”, “Lady Windermere’s Fan”, and “An Ideal Husband”, three delicious society farces. “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, his only novel, a dark tragedy, is considered to be a classic.

In 1895 Wilde was imprisoned for two years for homosexual offenses. “The love that dare not speak its name”, a euphemism for homosexuality. Is closely associated with Wilde because he used it during his trial. However, the phrase actually comes from the poem “Two Loves”, published in 1894 by Lord Alfred Douglas.

Wilde was widely known for his barbed wit, which is clearly reflected in the following quotations.

1.    A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.
 

 
2.    A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.
  

3.    A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.
  

4.    A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.
 

5.    A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.
 

 
6.    A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
 

 
7.    A true friend stabs you in the front.  
 

8.    All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.
  

9.    Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.
  

10.  An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

11.  As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.   

12.  Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same.
  

13.  By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.
  

14.  Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.
  

15.  Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
  

16.  I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.
  

17.  I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.
  

18.  I can resist everything except temptation.
  

19.  I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
  

20.  I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.
  
 
21.  If there was less sympathy in the world, there would be less trouble in the world.
  

22.  Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
  

23.   Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.
  

24.  Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable.
  

25.  Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
  

26.   One’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead.
  

 27.  Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.
  

28.  Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.
  

29.  The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.
  

30.  The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
  

31.  The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.
  

32.  The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
  

33.  The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.
 

34. The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.
  

35.  There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.
  

36.  There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to blame us.
  

37.  There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love.
  

38.  This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.
  

39.  To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.
  

40.   We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
  
 
41.  When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.
  

42.  Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.
  

43.  Whenever people agree with me, I always feel I must be wrong.
  

 44.  Woman begins by resisting a man’s advances and ends by blocking his retreat.
  

Previously in this Series

Part 1:              Pithy Prose: The Wit & Wisdom of Mark Twain

Philip Yaffe is a former reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal and a marketing communication consultant. He currently teaches a course in good writing and good speaking in Brussels, Belgium. His recently published book In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Almost) like a Professional is available from Story Publishers in Ghent, Belgium (storypublishers.be) and Amazon (amazon.com).

For further information, contact:

Philip Yaffe
Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)2 660 0405
phil.yaffe@yahoo.com, phil.yaffe@gmail.com

Part 1 of an occasional series

I am a collector of quotations. I have been ever since I learned how to write, I mean professionally, not in primary school.

I am particularly fond of what I like to call “pithy prose”. These short quotations can cover an unlimited variety of subjects: love, religion, politics, human nature, etc. What unites them is their ability to say more in one or two sentences than could be expressed in a thousand-word treatise. It’s like being able to pour a liter of liquid into a half-liter bottle.

They are superb examples of Mark Twain’s famous dictum, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.”

In principle, all writers and public speakers are capable of producing pithy prose, but clearly some are better at it than others.

Any collection of pithy prose must necessarily be biased in terms of what it includes and excludes. I make no apologies for my selections, only for the hundreds of other meritorious quotations I had to leave out.

No one will agree with all these quotations; this was not their intention. You may even find some of them repugnant or outrageous. This was their intention.

We seldom learn anything of value from what we already agree with. Only those ideas that grate on our nerves can open our minds. As with oysters, irritation can produce pearls. So if anything you are about to read annoys or shocks you, try to think clearly and dispassionately about what it is saying. You will either be confirmed in your current belief or shaken into re-examining it.

Either way, you win! 

This article is the first of an occasional series. In each succeeding article, I will be offering more amusing, educating, and exasperating quotations to your judgment. But just to be certain that we agree on what we are talking about, here it is in a nutshell.

Pithy Prose: A quotation where at first you may not be quite certain what it means. But when you become certain, you become equally certain that it couldn’t have been said better any other way. In short, big ideas in small packages.

If you have a better definition of pithy prose, please contact me. I would love to hear it.

I have already mentioned Mark Twain, so I will begin with him. He offers such a treasure trove of witty, perceptive quotations that it would be almost unthinkable to start with anyone else.

Mark Twain (1835 – 1910), whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was a product of the American Deep South.  “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin”, and “Life on the Mississippi”, his three most popular books, clearly reflect this origin. However, like all great authors, Mark Twain’s books, essays, and other writings go far beyond geography. They are universal.

So In no particular order, here are his pithy prose on a variety of subjects.

1.    A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

2.    A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.

3.    Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.

4.    Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.

5.    All generalizations are false, including this one.

6.    Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

7.    Who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?

8.    Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities.

9.    Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.

10.  Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.

11.  Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned.

12.  Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.

13.  Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

14.  I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.

15.  I can live for two months on a good compliment.
 

16.  I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn’t know.

17.  I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one.

18.  It isn’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.
 

19.  It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

20.  It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

 
21.  It’s no wonder that truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.

22.  Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
 

23.  Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
 

24.  Man – a creature made at the end of the week’s work when God was tired.

25.  Man is the only animal that blushes – or needs to.

26.  Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.

27.  One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.
 

28.   Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.

29.  Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
 

 
30.  The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

31.  The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little.

32.  There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist.
 

33.  The more things are forbidden, the more popular they become.

34.  The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.
 

35.  Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does all the work.

36.  When a person cannot deceive himself, the chances are against his being able to deceive other people.

37.  When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it happened or not.

38.  When in doubt, tell the truth.
 

39.  You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
 

A Final Word

Mark Twain is an almost inexhaustible source of pithy prose. The quotations included here barely scratch the surface. Let me conclude with a comment by the perhaps the only other source of pithy prose more prolific. Mark Twain never said this, or at least I never found the quotation. But I am certain it is something he would have liked to have said.

“Most of us prefer to disparage a person who is almost always right rather than asking why we ourselves are almost always wrong.” – Anon.

Philip Yaffe is a former reporter/feature writer with The Wall Street Journal and a marketing communication consultant. He currently teaches a course in good writing and good speaking in Brussels, Belgium. His recently published book In the “I” of the Storm: the Simple Secrets of Writing & Speaking (Almost) like a Professional is available from Story Publishers in Ghent, Belgium (storypublishers.be) and Amazon (amazon.com).

For further information, contact:

Philip Yaffe
Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)2 660 0405
phil.yaffe@yahoo.com, phil.yaffe@gmail.com

Some idea of Italian practical genius in printing may be obtained from the fact that they invented paragraphing in print as we now have it, introduced pagination, invented capital letters, first arranged punctuation and added all those features which make the modern printed book so much more easy to understand than the old manuscripts or even the first books that were printed. To them too we owe the title page with the information that it now conveys at a glance and many other features that are real discoveries.

Italy has a lot more history to discover on location, and one of best ways to do it is touring with your own private driver-guide.

I’m Not Evil is the fastest horse that Marvin and his dad, Nick, have ever seen. When Evil is on the track, it seems like he could run all day. The black colt is just as big as he is fast. Evil’s desire to run burns so strongly-no rider on his back or bit in his mouth can ever tame it. Can Evil win the Triple Crown and other big races? Will any other horse ever catch him?

Amber Ooley wrote Down to the Wire to express her imagination and enjoyment regarding this very exciting sport of horse racing. Since it can be difficult to get a book published due to minimum age requirements, cost and time, lulu.com was chosen as the publisher, a print-on-demand process, which is fast, easy and, most importantly, free. Down to the Wire is available for purchase at www.lulu.com, as well as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and other online bookstores world wide.

Link to Publication: http://www.lulu.com/content/957449

The author, Amber Ooley, is only 14 and in the eighth grade. She has only been into horseracing for just about a year and a half, and has learned a lot about the sport. The book took approximately eight months to complete. Amber, herself, takes horse riding lessons and very much enjoys it!

Link to Publication: http://www.lulu.com/content/957449