Writing and the Web

by Christopher Meeks

• Writing and the Internet: No, they're not mutually exclusive!
• Where to begin: Getting started is the hard part. Here are some ways to make it easier.
• Arranging information: Getting your train of thought on track.
• Outlining: Before or after you write, this is a useful tool.
• Mind maps: A simple, graphic way to help your text take shape.
• Start writing: How do you really start? Put your fingers on the keyboard...

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Recently, I've come across stories about how the Internet is affecting the English language. In fact, it was the subject at a recent meeting of the Modern Language Association. I've embraced e-mail, because it is getting people more involved in written language—and it's fast and convenient. Clearly, however, e-mail tends not to be long epistolary affairs a la Hemingway to his editor Max Perkins. Instead, e-mail often is a quick note with informal language and a rushed sense. Grammar, capital letters, and spelling fall by the wayside for many people. Web sites can appear just as hurried.

While I think that the more people write, the better they will get, Sven Birkerts, an English professor at Bennington College, was less than optimistic in a recent article by Amy Harmon in the New York Times. Birkerts, who mourned the fate of electronic reading in the electronic age in his 1994 book, The Gutenberg Elegies, writes about the coming apart of language in a new collection of essays to be published by Greywolf Press.

"I never see a sentence with a semicolon in it anymore," Birkerts said in an interview. "People don't tend to read the kind of writing that has semicolons. We tend to read the prose of the age, and the prose of the age, influenced by the ethos of electronic communication, is almost overwhelmingly flat... and declarative."

I mention this because this column's goal is not to help you write overwhelming flat prose or how to be informal and mediocre. Rather, I'm trying to get you to rise above the ordinary, to soar like a cardinal in the blue sky (unless that's too declarative). Hence, if it means being a little more precise in your writing, so be it.

Where to begin

So where do you begin? You want to be better than the rest, but how do you start? Although my advice may work equally well for all writing, including love letters, articles, short stories, plays, screenplays, and more, we'll start with Web sites because this site is focused on that goal. Let's say you want to make a Web site of, well, you or your business.

First thing: to what end? Will it be like electronic spray paint on a wall, a sign of your existence? That's valid, but not necessarily of great interest to others beyond your circle of friends. Perhaps you have a grander purpose.

Business sites and personal sites should have at least one thing in common—an enthusiasm, even passion, for a particular subject. Even if your goal is really to sell a product or service, presenting customers and potential customers with useful, interesting information is an effective way to increase business (and do something worthwhile at the same time).

Let's say your interest is model rockets. You've built and experimented with Estes rockets since you were a kid. You have enthusiasm and knowledge, and you want to pass both on. Maybe you even want to sell model rockets from your site. Or you're a James Joyce scholar. Or a skateboarder extraordinaire. Or a rising film critic. The Web, in my mind, is mostly about the exchange of information. What information do you have to offer?

Arranging information

Once you've set a purpose to write, you may want to set about ordering your information. Sometimes, if I'm eager to start, I'll fire up the computer and start writing. Later on, I'll fix the order. As you know from my previous columns, there is no bad first draft, so it doesn't matter if your first draft bounces around, gets hung up on a point for pages, or is filled with trite sayings or ideas. ("A stitch in time saves nine.") Your first draft is an experimental draft, not meant for public consumption. It is the draft you will edit and revise later.

The write-it-now-in-a-burst-of-energy approach, however, is not necessarily the most efficient. Heartfelt, yes, and often inspired, true, but not always the best use of time since you might end up throwing out whole sections. I've tended to write in a burst of energy because there's an organic quality to the writing—ideas grow from ideas. But running willy nilly into the night with barely a flashlight is not the only way to go.

Outlines

The plan-ahead approach has you working with an outline. Your major ideas are set in Roman numeral order. The subheadings are ordered by capital letters, the sub-subheadings by Arabic numbers, and, if you need them, sub-sub-subheadings in small letters (you don't really have to worry about the exact formatting—most word processing programs will do this for you). Subheadings come in two or more. If you can think of only one subheading, then incorporate it into the heading. Here's an example of an outline:
 

MY MODEL ROCKET SITE

I) Home Page – Introduction to me and rocketry
    II) History of rockets and model rockets
        A) Chinese invention of fireworks
        B) Chinese invention of Kung Pao Chicken
            a) My favorite Chinese restaurants
            b) Hunan Taste
            c) Taco Bell
        C) Modern rocketry

III) History of me and my interests in rocketry
    A) I didn't get a pony, so I bought a rocket.
    B) My bicycle didn't work like ET's, so I bought another rocket.

IV) How to build rockets

An advantage of the outline form is that you can throw in a lot of ideas, then delete, add, or move them around. As you may have noted, the outline above jumped into eating, which has nothing to do with rocketry—clearly a candidate for moving or deleting. (You could move it to a new section under "History of Me," titled "My Non-Rocket Interests.")

You'd be surprised how, when you write without an outline, you get sidetracked and might not even notice how you've moved into eating or other things temporarily on your mind.

A tip: Outlining is a great thing to do after you've written something, too, especially if you've used the organic approach. You outline what you've written. You'll see your structure more clearly and can plan your rewriting from there. For more information about making outlines in your word processing program, click here.

Mind maps

Some of you reading this may be intimidated by outlines. Starting one can be tough. You may freeze at the start as you ask yourself what will you be introducing? For those people, I suggest a pre-outline device: a mind map. A what? Grab a piece of paper and a pen. In the center write what you are after, and circle it. Say you are after "My Web site."

Outside of that circle, write ideas that come to mind as they appear to you. For instance, if you are a filmmaker, you might write, "Films I Love," "Films I'd Like to Make," "Actors I'd Like to Use," "Films I Hate But Learned From," etc. Circle those ideas, and outside each one of those circles, attach related ideas. Under "Films I Love" might be "Shakespeare in Love," "Clockwork Orange," and "Harold and Maude." You get the idea. In short order, your page may be filled.

Mind maps are made to harness your chaos. You let things spill from your mind, including the things you'd like to tell your lover or getting the car fixed or your need to buy stamps—whatever is on your mind.

Now get another piece of paper and start your outline. Look at your mind map and start ranking things in your outline by importance. You do not have to use everything on your mind map. Some of it may not have to do with the subject at hand. On a mind map, you let your ideas flow. Your outline, on the other hand, is a filter, offering yourself structure and purpose. Once you have an outline, start writing.

To be a writer

To be a writer, you must write. Writer's block, to me, is simply being either too intimidated to begin or too frantic to begin. Try mind maps and outlining—or, if you're ready to run, write first and rearrange later.

When you realize there's no bad first draft, then you don't feel you need to turn out something perfect right away. You allow yourself room to make mistakes. Move forward. Put your fingers on the keyboard; start writing.

About the author

Christopher Meeks writes for and teaches creative writing at CalArts, and he also teaches English at Santa Monica College. He has published four nonfiction children's books and written many short stories.  His stories have been published most recently in The Santa Barbara Review, The Southern California Anthology, Rosebud, and upcoming in Writers' Forum. His first full-length play, Suburban Anger, was mounted in 1993 at the Playwrights Arena in Los Angeles. 

In August 1997, his play Who Lives? was staged at the 24^th Street Theatre in Los Angeles, and its good reviews have other theaters across the country considering it now.  The play earned several grants for its production, including one from The Pilgrim Project, a group that assists plays that "ask questions of real moral significance." For seven years, he was a theater reviewer for Daily Variety, and he wrote a column for Writer's Digest for two years.  His screenplay, Henry's Room, won the Donald David Dramatic Writing Award.

Illustration: from www.artville.com