Once more with feeling

AUCKLAND, Today: “Pretty much everyone can write,” reckons adman Michael Goldthorpe – a former TBWA NZ creative, who now runs indie agency Hunch. “It’s a technical skill that requires an understanding of clarity, accuracy and grammatical convention. If you can read, you can write.

“Mostly.

“But the craft of writing goes deeper,” Goldthorpe writes in his blog (scroll down for the link).

“Just like acting, painting, or any form of art, craft goes beyond the technical to create something that makes people feel.

“Some things make you want to read them – while others feel like words on a page.”

“Good writers think about tone, tension, pace, cadence, context, rhythm, repetition and more.

“Great writers don’t even think about it. They just feel.

“Because that’s the craft of writing. Pushing past what something says to get creative with how to say it. How it sounds, how it feels – and how the reader will feel when they read it.

“And that’s why some things make you want to read them – while others feel like words on a page.”

• hunch.co.nz/ourblog/methodwriting