by Julie Bogart
Quality writing depends on several key components such as surprise, beautiful language, sentence variety, and distinct voice. Perhaps the
most important ingredient in good writing, however, is insight. Insight is that intangible something that reveals a fresh perspective. Insight is the discovery for the first time of what you’ve always known.
The Power of Insight
When we read a writer’s work and have that “aha!” moment, we are experiencing the power of the writer’s insight. Insight is deeply rooted in experience and description (there are other features as well, but for this article, let’s explore those two).
To get to a new perspective that resonates at a deep level, the writer has to start by telling the truth about his or her experience. This is a foreign experience for many people. We become so habituated to saying what is expected, to experiencing life through a set of preconceptions handed to us by family, culture, and national identity that the potential for truth-telling is blunted by expectation and conditioning. We are especially prone to unconsciously imposing those kinds of pressures on our kids so we have to explicitly give them permission to mess up our preconceptions as they explore topics for writing.
I remember reading in one writing check list for revision that the writer should check her piece to be sure that all of the descriptions were edifying. If the writer is forced to make all descriptions rosy so as not to reveal chinks or blemishes, then the writer will not be able to dig honestly into her experience and thus bring forth truth. The writing will suffer and there will be no insight.
To access experience, it helps to divest oneself of prejudgments. You might:
• read widely
• observe keenly
• ask questions
• ponder comparisons
• open yourself to new interpretations
Let your experience of the topic, scene or person deepen before writing. Take notes and allow for contradictions.
The second important aspect of gaining insight is the ability to describe thoroughly. When describing, we want to pay attention to the small details. In a familiar object, it might be the way the light catches the item or the blemish that is overlooked when merely glancing. In describing an idea, you’ll want to look for the way that idea illuminates another related idea or the way it exposes a myth or stereotype, or even the way it reinforces that stereotype. You might look at it through the opposing viewpoint or pretending to agree where you disagree.
As you give yourself to hidden details of thought and perspective, you allow yourself to generate new experiences. These experiences lead to questions which will inevitably lead you to a fresh perspective. It is that perspective that I like to call insight!
Insight takes time to birth, but the labor leading up to it need not be painful. Simply let your mind percolate, and then apply yourself to accurate description. As you do, you’ll generate insight.
Julie Bogart homeschooled her five children for seventeen years. Now she runs Brave Writer, the online writing and language arts program for families, and is the founder of The Homeschool Alliance and Poetry Teatime.
Quality writing depends on several key components such as surprise, beautiful language, sentence variety, and distinct voice. Perhaps the
most important ingredient in good writing, however, is insight. Insight is that intangible something that reveals a fresh perspective. Insight is the discovery for the first time of what you’ve always known.
The Power of Insight
When we read a writer’s work and have that “aha!” moment, we are experiencing the power of the writer’s insight. Insight is deeply rooted in experience and description (there are other features as well, but for this article, let’s explore those two).
I remember reading in one writing check list for revision that the writer should check her piece to be sure that all of the descriptions were edifying. If the writer is forced to make all descriptions rosy so as not to reveal chinks or blemishes, then the writer will not be able to dig honestly into her experience and thus bring forth truth. The writing will suffer and there will be no insight.
To access experience, it helps to divest oneself of prejudgments. You might:
• read widely
• observe keenly
• ask questions
• ponder comparisons
• open yourself to new interpretations
Let your experience of the topic, scene or person deepen before writing. Take notes and allow for contradictions.
The second important aspect of gaining insight is the ability to describe thoroughly. When describing, we want to pay attention to the small details. In a familiar object, it might be the way the light catches the item or the blemish that is overlooked when merely glancing. In describing an idea, you’ll want to look for the way that idea illuminates another related idea or the way it exposes a myth or stereotype, or even the way it reinforces that stereotype. You might look at it through the opposing viewpoint or pretending to agree where you disagree.
As you give yourself to hidden details of thought and perspective, you allow yourself to generate new experiences. These experiences lead to questions which will inevitably lead you to a fresh perspective. It is that perspective that I like to call insight!
Insight takes time to birth, but the labor leading up to it need not be painful. Simply let your mind percolate, and then apply yourself to accurate description. As you do, you’ll generate insight.
Julie Bogart homeschooled her five children for seventeen years. Now she runs Brave Writer, the online writing and language arts program for families, and is the founder of The Homeschool Alliance and Poetry Teatime.
