This is not a rhetorical question, but how does one expresses their interest without any given sentences to explain it, even just the simplest caption to garnish the entire thing? Words are considered to be the best option to express your feelings. The simplest "I love you" could sum up your entire feelings towards someone. The simplest "Good bye" could shatter even the fondest memories resided in someone's mind. Words are a power held by every one of us. Words could fail you, but words could also make you live.
Words are one thing, but Writing is the entire thing. I always admire those who have the ability to write. I've been writing on this platform for about 7 years now and I can tell you that it is not an easy thing to do. Writers don't just throw words that may tangle from one to another; they compile what I would like to call a coherent beauty. It is not as simple as making an introduction-body-conclusion, it is not also about making it work and it is certainly not as simple as throwing ideas so people could understand. Writing is a compassion held within sentences, an expression of mind formed in paragraphs. A good writer must deliver the intended information, but his/her writings need to make people 'tick'. The beauty of writing relies not only in its structured grammar but also in the crispness of its style.
Writing takes quite amount of effort and headache, thousands of fluttery feelings and one gigantic satisfaction. Writers usually go through different phases, most likely to begin with one particular idea that surfaced, lead to an emotion and knowledge built up, then came the pause, all to be finished in one celebrated period. It could take hours, days, event months to compile one good writing. The beauty of writing came simply from how a writer expresses his/her style of writing, either for its structure, its choice of vocabulary, or even its approach. Every writers are different and that's what makes each and every one of them interesting.
Little that everyone knows, writing could also help you expressing your interest(s). Through writing, you get to deliver much broader scope of your interest, inviting those to stand in your shoes, see what you see and feel what you feel. It's not as simple as telling everyone you like sport, but more to why and how you like it. Think of it as explaining a thing to a 5-year-old, with much complex sentences and deliberated words.
I considered myself to be one of those non-specific writer/blogger. I write pretty much about anything that goes in my mind. So to take you on further to what I just elaborated to you, I brought to you much anticipated contributors with vast amount of experience on writing for one particular interest and I am gonna give you my opinion on what makes their writing 'tick'.
-- I am not gonna give you their backgrounds nor achievements, you are gonna have to head to their sites to find out --
"I write about food the way I do now because I want to pull the audience to the frontier of food appreciation. That there's more to it than delicious. That there's more to it than calories. To make that happen, I experimented with tons of approach. One of my favorite ways is to actually not write about the food. One of my article titled "Sarugaku Coffee Daikanyama : Tokyo's Best Kept Secret" begins with a quote from John Mayer. What does it have to do with a cup of coffee? As it turns out, a lot. Because if a cup of caffeine can take me to a particular segment in my memories about a song, then it can take you too to places you've been or you've never been. Food has that power. It is the single entity (other than sex) that can get into your body voluntarily. So, when you're eating, you're choosing to take yourself on an orgasmic level or not. I want people to realize that through the writing."
I've known Ruby for few years now. I discovered him through his blog, a damn good food blog. I am not gonna talk about his extraordinary skill on food photography, but I am gonna talk about how his writing makes your mind wander and how every sentences he built will rattle your hunger.
1. He usually includes a follow-up to his post title, to hook people up. For example, one of his post is titled "Kashiwa Little Tokyo : Trip Down Memory Lane"; it begs us for questions like what does this particular restaurant remind him of? What kind of memory he had in his mind while dining there? Sure you can find the answer by reading the article.
2. He uses references, either a famous saying, a song, any stuffs like that. It not only takes you on to a different level, but also give a relation to what's food gotta do with every other aspects in life. It makes you think far beyond what foods represent, not only as a fulfilment for your hunger, but for your hungry mind as well.
3. He puts you behind his lenses and take you down on a trip in his shoes. He gives you detailed view of the restaurant's ambience and some of his opinion about it.
4. He often relates his writing to what we usually call an 'event amplification'. For example, he wrote "We took turns trying the granola bowl; and while the presentation was delightful, we came to an agreement that it was supposed to be chewier and less runny. Nonetheless, a granola bowl is supposed to be refreshing, and it did exactly just that for me," on one of his post. He gave us a minor hint on what he were doing there and related it to his dish, in such manner that it is not much of an annoyance.
5. A killer introduction and a strong conclusion. Always, always mind this one.
6. He sometimes throws a knowledge or two about the topic. He wrote "On top of that, Rubiaceae is the name of the familia of flowering plants that include coffee. Flowers are delicate and feminine, two traits that traditionally define women. So, all-female crews and flowers. Plus their coffee cup has cute red-stripes on it. Is Rubiaceae all about traditional femininity?" He entitled to his opinion, but he twisted it in such way to make us think, to make us believe, even just to say, "I think so too." This, my dear reader, is how you influence people through your writing.
7. He would not only comment on the food, but he will also give you a minor hint and warning, to approach his reader better. This is very important, because readers are also entitled to their own perspectives, so it is up to you to make them see yours.
There are a lot of food bloggers wannabe out there with enough materials and platform to become an acclaimed one, but they failed on delivering the beauty of the foods itself. I've read some of them and I just went meh. To be honest, I only visit few of them to know where some restaurants are located and their price point. I simply don't trust their opinion because -no offense- any people could write such thing.
"Filmmaking begins with words and sentences. A humble screenplay could breed a life-changing masterpiece. A scrap of ideas could be the beginning of a grand adventure, full of incredible visuals and performances. My criticism journal also starts with words and sentences. I could perfectly put all my emotions and thoughts about movies I've watched in its simplest form, waiting to be unpacked and felt by the mind of my readers."
No one speaks of Movie like this man does. I personally know his incomparable love towards movie and filmmaking, but you too can feel his passion through his writing. It's insane.
1. His writing is very well structured, easy to digest, with choices of vocabulary that won't confuse you yet still build the crispness I talked about earlier. He usually begins his review with a synopsis, then the background like the movie's prequel, or the infamous work the director directed in the past, stuffs like that. Then he would comment on the movie, from its plot, its characters, its world building, its script, etc. He would tell what's good and what's not, then end it with a strong yet brief conclusion.
2. His style of writing is very journalistic like. What's this 'journalistic-like' style of writing? It's when you could fit as many information as possible in a paragraph without making it sounding too crowded. In short, brief yet informative.
3. He uses proper Bahasa Indonesia without losing the fun part. It is a very hard thing to do, because in Bahasa Indonesia, there is a tendency to appear stiff and uncoordinated, not like English. Fortunately, he manages to prove it wrong.
4. He is a movie genius but he doesn't appear cocky in his writing. I am pretty sure you have read plenty of movie reviews with tons of information that you can't even digest because you are a 'commoner'. His writing doesn't show any of that. He does throw some tidbits, but only the necessary ones.
5. Movie review is usually a long article, but he manages to capture all the points in enough amount of paragraphs. This is important because in reading a movie review, people would normally scroll to the end to see only the verdict and rate, but seeing his brief explanation, it'll approach his reader to even bother to read.
I did a couple of movie review myself, but I can't write like he does. Those 4 aspects (eliminate the point number 3) he possesses are far beyond my ability. It is hard to write a movie review, because you are not just presenting your opinion on the movie, but you will have to present significant amount of information that will back your opinion up, otherwise yours will just be a stupid comment away.
In conclusion, you are not only have to excell on your writing, but you also have to express your personality through it. People will appreciate a good writing and a good amount of information, but they will make themselves a regular reader if they find your writing, not only interesting, but also alive.
I actually approached more contributors, but these two definitely striked on their writing. I promise to give you another contributors to give an appreciation to, on the next post. So you definitely need to stay tuned for that.
