REVIEW: "Writing is easy: how to compose texts without waiting for inspiration", Olga Solomatina

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Love to write, but wait weeks for inspiration? Or, on the contrary, you cannot connect two words on paper? Trust me, writing is easy! Much easier than you think. If you want to be convinced of this, read the book by Olga Solomatina.

Do you know how many of the readers of educational books, students of courses and trainings, according to statistics, use new knowledge in practice? Do you think half? Thirty percent? Negligible - only five percent. With awareness, the situation is even worse - only three percent of the world's population, psychologists say, are able to realize themselves, their actions and their influence. About the same percentage of people are millionaires. Is it because they do not just read and listen, but also do? Olga Solomatina

“What an inconvenient format,” I thought when I first picked up this book. Paperback, wide pages - some kind of album, not a book.

I guess. “Writing is easy” is not really a book. This is a tutorial for anyone writing or wanting to write. The format of the publication is not accidental. The author is trying to instill practical writing skills in his novice colleagues. Therefore, capacious lectures are supported by exercises that can be performed right on the pages of the book.

What do you remember about the book?

With dozens of books on copywriting and journalism behind you, it's hard to come across something really useful. Sometimes it seems as if the authors are competing in rewriting, copying the same advice from each other.

Olga Solomatina went the other way. “Writing is easy” is an extract from her knowledge and experience. Therefore, each chapter is of genuine interest.

Three of them resonated the most with me:

• Chapter 3. Genres in journalism: from theory to practice.
• Chapter 4. Priceless interview genre.
• Chapter 6. Practical stylistics.

How many journalistic genres can you name? Right now, offhand. Honestly, despite the baggage of books I have read, I did not even suspect the existence of some genres described by Olga. Not to mention the fact that she did not know how to work with them. (We'll talk about the practical benefits of the third chapter a little later.)

My favorite genre is interviews. “A successful interview is a well-rehearsed improvisation,” writes Olga Solomatina, and I agree with her. I took dozens of interviews for the No Excuses special project. It takes me at least an hour to prepare for each of the interviews, but I have never been able to follow the brief 100%.

Exercises for the fourth chapter will teach you not only to ask questions, but also to answer them, and therefore, to better understand the interviewees.

In the chapter on stylistics, the author tells why it is important to have “your own voice” when writing texts, how to edit them, and why bureaucracy is killing the language. The latter is especially interesting.

… the vocabulary and syntax of slogans and political appeals have entered our spoken language. The population of the microdistrict appeared, lives with a wife and children, generated by the state, owns a house, creates conveniences, gusts of wind exceeded, deserved attention, had an unconditional preponderance, etc. And the authors boldly write: the station is sampling "instead of asking" if we will pickle cucumbers "or informing that" epidemiologists have taken samples."

If in the above quote you recognize yourself, your speech or writing, then chapter number six is a must-read for you.

Will I “write easily” by reading the book?

It all depends on you. As I mentioned at the beginning, the edition consists of lectures (theory) and exercises (practice).

Even though the book is only 120 pages long, you won't be able to read it quickly. Practical exercises require thoughtful work. Performing them, sometimes you "hang" for more than one hour.

But if you honestly do this job, I guarantee that it will be easy for you to write. For two reasons.

First, exercise is really good. Let me give you an example. Chapter three is devoted to genres in journalism. In the practical part, readers are invited to select news from the news feed and reveal it in each of the described genres. It is easy to write a note or report, for example, about the release of the iPhone 6; making a rating or an information report about the same is not a problem. But how to present this news in the form of a review or obituary? You have to break your head. Although this only inflames the excitement.:)

Secondly, you will fill your hand. Remember the first time you sewed on a button? They puffed, tried, pricked their fingers, tangled the thread, but it turned out all the same crooked. So it is with the texts. The first materials, no matter how hard you try, come out awkward, take a lot of time and creativity. But you write five-ten-twenty (and about the same you will get when doing the exercises), and tongue-tied and stupor disappear.

Should you buy a book?

Yes.

(Consider this as an advertisement.)

I am sure that Olga Solomatina's work will become an adornment of your library.

Even if you are a techie and don't write anything other than forum posts. This book will save you from the "fear of a blank slate." You will no longer have to spend weeks gathering your courage to write a report or letter.

If you are a humanitarian, then "Writing is easy" is a must have for you (sorry for foreignism). Personally, I will constantly return to what I have read, and use the "Write Correctly" application as a cheat sheet.

"Writing is easy: how to compose texts without waiting for inspiration", Olga Solomatina

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