Another Example Of Great Writing

The world is full of great writing. So I have decided I will highlight some examples whenever I stumble on them.

Here’s one I came across from Adam Grant & Sheryl Sandberg’s book Option B.

Resilience is the strength and speed of our response to adversity, and we can build it. It isn’t about having a backbone. It’s about strengthening the muscles around our backbone.”

The book features many things that Sandberg learned after the sudden death of her husband. She learned how to find strength in the face of adversity, how to rebound from life-shattering experiences and how to help others in crisis.

One of my key takeaways from reading this book is her line about strengthening the muscles around our backbone. Sandberg doesn’t mean we actually need to up our back exercises if we want to be able to bounce back from devastation. No amount of pull-ups would help us from crumpling to the floor if we found out our spouse had died.

But the image she uses is one we can understand and remember. We have all heard about the importance of having a backbone. We need to stand up for ourselves and not let others walk all over us. We associate it with being strong.

One way to be strong in the face of hardship is to start building our resilience now. The book uses studies done by Grant to show that our level of resilience isn’t fixed. It is something we can grow.

What a great way to show this by using something we all associate with being strong (a backbone) and painting a picture of how we can add to that backbone (building up the muscles around it).

A great line in an awesome book. I highly recommend you check it out.

This Is The Best Thing I’ve Read All Day

The bestselling book You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life by Jen Sincero is filled with great thoughts about, like the subtitle says, how we can live an awesome life. I am a big fan of these type of books. I have read chasing your dreams described many different ways. 

But Sincero managed to describe it is a way I had never thought about before. And it is fantastic. It is by far the best thing I’ve read all day. Probably all month.

Birthing your dreams is like… giving birth.  Conceiving the idea is the fun part (hopefully), then you go through insane amounts of fear and excitement and dreaming and planning and vomiting and growing and thinking you’re crazy and thinking you’re awesome and stretching and shape shifting until you’re practically unrecognizable to everyone, even your own self.

Along the way you clean up your puke and massage your aching back and apologize to all the people whose heads you ripped of in a hormonal killing spree, but you stay the course because you know this baby of yours is going to be the bomb.

Then, finally, just when you can see a light at the end of the tunnel, labor starts.  your innards twist and strangle and force you to stumble around hunched over in the shape of the letter ‘C’ while you breathe and pray and curse and just when you think it can’t get any more out-of-your-mind painful, a giant baby head squeezes out of a tiny hole in your body.  Then.  A full-blown miracle appears.

In order to change your life and start living a new one that you’ve never lived before, your faith in miracles, and yourself, must be greater than your fear.”

Like that description? Check out the book here.

Another Example of Great Writing

The world is full of great writing. So I have decided I will highlight some examples whenever I stumble on them.

Here’s one I came across from Norm MacDonald’s book Based on a True Story: A Memoir…

Death is a funny thing. Not funny-haha, like a Woody Allen movie, but funny-strange, like a Woody Allen marriage.”

Norm is telling a story about the time he granted a dying child’s wish. The above sentence comes when Norm enters the child’s hospital room. The book is very lighthearted and you wonder if Norm is going to be able to keep that humor while talking about a sensitive subject (full disclosure, the kid’s wish ends up being that he wants to kill a baby seal, so I don’t think the story is 100% truthful).

An average writer would have said something like, “death is like a buzzing alarm clock — you just want to smack it off the nightstand once it starts.” A good writer would have said something along the lines of, “death is nothing to laugh at, much like the rest of my material.”

Norm topped both of those by making a death joke that is both funny and not insensitive.

That is some great writing!

Another Example of Great Writing

The world is full of great writing. So I have decided I will highlight some examples whenever I stumble on them.

Here’s one I came across from Stephen King’s book 11/22/63…

That group was a Martin Luther King dream come true — 50% black, 50% white, 100% happy. “

In this part of the book, King is talking about a group of betters who are lined up to collect their winnings. Rather than a long paragraph describing the scene, he paints a perfect picture of what the crowd looks like — race & emotions included — in just 16 words.

An average writer would have said something like, “the bettors, were equally black and white, and happy.” A good writer would have said something along the lines of, “what’s black and white and glad all over? That line of bettors.”

King topped both of those in a creative, culturally appropriate, and concise way. Something that is not easy to do with just a line about a line.

That is some great writing!

Another Example of Great Writing

The world is full of great writing. So I have decided I will highlight some examples whenever I stumble on them.

Here’s one I came across today from a blog post by Max Lucado…

Christmas is our annual reminder of why Santa takes the sleigh rather than the interstate and how the mall got its name.

Max is writing about how the stress of Christmas causes people to feel hurried, scattered and broke. The reason this is great writing is not because Max is offering any breaking news. We all know about holiday traffic and the craziness of malls.

What makes it great writing is the imagery he conjures up with his words.

An average writer would have said something like, “We know it is nearly Christmas when the freeways and malls are packed.” A good writer would have said something along the lines of, “This time of year I spend more time in traffic and trying to survive the mall than I do on my fantasy football team.”

Max topped both of those by painting a picture of Santa choosing a sleigh simply because it is a way to avoid rush hour. Not only do we get the point, but our brains light up when thinking about what it would look like to see St. Nick stuck in traffic.

That is some great writing!

Another Example of Great Writing

The world is full of great writing. So I decided I would highlight some examples whenever I stumble on them.

Here’s one I came across from Before Amen by Max Lucado.

Prayers aren’t graded according to style. Just as a happy child cannot mis-hug, the sincere heart cannot mis-pray”

Lucado is talking about how many Christians struggle with prayer because they feel they need to use perfect words or complicated messages. Many people overthink it and get tripped up. Lucado wanted to get a point across that we should downplay the importance of finding the right words.

An average writer would have said something like, “Don’t worry about how you say it, just say it.” A good writer would have said something along the lines of, “Jesus doesn’t care about your words as much as he cares about your message.”

Lucado topped both of those by evoking the thought of receiving a hug from a happy child. We can wrap our minds around the idea that it is nearly impossible to receive a bad hug from a happy kid. By using this example, we are more easily able to understand why we are unlikely to mis-pray.

That is some great writing!

Another Example of Great Writing

The world is full of great writing. So I decided I would highlight some examples whenever I stumble on them. Here’s one I came across from Once I Pass’d Through a Populous City by Walt Whitman.

Day by day and night by night we were together,—All else has long been forgotten by me.”

In this poem, Whitman is writing about a time he went on vacation and wanted to remember everything about the city he was visiting — the “architecture, customs, and traditions.” But try as he might, he only remembers one thing, a woman he met during his travels.

An average writer would have said something like, “I had a good trip, but being with you was the best part.” A good writer would have said something along the lines of, “our time spent together meant more to me than anything else I experienced on my trip.”

As someone who not only appreciates great writing, but also has a bad memory, I particularly like the way Whitman chose to word his line.

That is some great writing!

An Example of Great Writing

The world is full of great writing. So I decided I would highlight some examples whenever I stumble on them. Here’s one I came across from Rules of Civility by Amos Towles.

To begin, Wallace ordered aspic, of all things, and I had the house salad — a terrific concoction of iceberg greens, cold blue cheese and warm red bacon. If I were a country, I would have made it my flag.”

The main character and narrator, Katey, is at dinner with her friend Wallace. The above line describes her order. It would have been fine to say the food was delicious. It would have been ever better to say something like, “the food made my taste buds jump for joy.” However, saying, “If I were a country, I would have made it my flag” is fantastic!

It is such a unique was of describing a salad and it really paints a picture of how much Katey enjoyed the meal.

That is some great writing!

Great Writing Can Even Make Abbreviations Funny

Hilarity and postal code abbreviations usually are not found in the same sentence. But comedian Gary Gulman proves that with some great writing, even the most mundane of topics can make an audience belly laugh.

Enjoy…