Or More Bluntly

I am by education, experience, and employment an engineer—nearly 20 years as a licensed Professional Engineer (at the time of writing 19 years, 2 months, and 2 days, not that anyone is counting). Engineers like numbers and precision. Not so much the communicating part. Do you know how to tell an extroverted engineer? He looks at your feet instead of his own when talking to you.

The two worst people to ask a question of are lawyers and engineers. More often than not, you will get a response (from both) that sounds like an answer, but when you parse it down to the base, you discover that it really was not an answer. With the former, they were probably trying to decipher which side of the answer you were on before committing to a side in case you are a potential client. With the latter, they were probably trying to be nice and not tell you that you were asking a question with a tough answer while you wanted an easy one. Or they know you won’t like it if they bluntly tell you the truth—an item they also have no compunction to share.

To an engineer, the answer to A or B depends on C. Which is influenced by D and augmented by E. If you follow this analogy then it is easy to understand why the engineer is so hung up on talking about J when all you want to know is yes or no. This propensity to expound an “easy” explanation into a convoluted 23-part treatise is a reason most engineers are not authors (non-fiction books notwithstanding). Or more bluntly, engineers rarely go into writing.

Many engineers will tell you, “I can’t spell, so I went with numbers.” Or words to that effect. I will let you know that I am an engineer who can spell. Which really means I understand grammar, too. Not editor level, mind you, but I can normally spot a passive voice dangling modifier with an unclear antecedent. The sheer number of them I see happen in the correspondence I have to read for work has nothing to do with my skill at locating them. Or more bluntly, I like to write.

As often happens, though, we “run home to mama” and revert to what we’re comfortable with. What we first learned to do. Forgetting our education, training, and experience and just doing what feels right. This is a problem for an engineer who can spell. Or more bluntly, sometimes even when we know it isn’t the right way to present a topic, we drone on and on about the surrounding pieces.

My writing resume includes many genres and multiple formats. I have written novels, novellas, novelettes, short stories, plays, poems (to include haikus), blurbs, theses, articles, blog posts, newsletters, commendations, recommendations, contracts, advertisements, and pretty much anything I can think of (except a film screenplay). Or more bluntly, this paragraph is an embodiment of the previous paragraph.

Many authors say that editing is hard. But no author worth their salt would tell you not to do it. Sometimes it’s fixing the spelling or grammar. Mostly it’s eliminating the chaff. The excess, the extra. And the verbose. Typically, it is sagacious to eschew obfuscation. Eliminate unnecessary words. Or more bluntly, be direct and eliminate.

People as a general rule don’t listen to other people prattle on. They would rather spend their time elsewhere. And if an author prattles, it is a surefire way to lose readers. Or not gain them to begin with. An author without readers is a loudmouth on a soapbox at the end of a long, dead-end street. Writing is a lonely enough endeavour. The output should attract and encourage readers. Or more bluntly, encourage readers rather than run them off.

Sometimes, though, just saying the blunt truth is not entertaining. Sometimes it takes exposition. Sometimes looking at the scenery along the way is as enjoyable as arriving. Maybe one fewer rest stop is better. Maybe one more rest stop is better. Sometimes sleeping through the trip is not the best answer. The journey can be an enjoyment.

Or more bluntly, write it anyway—just try to cut out the bad parts.