Click Bait? Or Ignorance?

The other day, I was looking at various posts on Substack and came across this title: All Good Writers Outline. I chuckled and moved on.

I ignored the post because I didn't trust the author. I chuckled because the claim was blatantly false. It could be that the writer didn't intend to make a sweeping generality or perhaps the intent was there.

I've had several different professions in my life. Before I took an early retirement to write, I taught at a Cal State university, for about, well, for a long time.

There were writing strategies I repeated and repeated in all the composition classes I taught. My students probably mumbled these phrases in their sleep.

Here are the most basic ones: use active voice verbs, use specific details, support your claims, don't say "I think or I feel or I believe" because unless you state otherwise and tell your reader, everything in your essay represents your opinions and thoughts, and my favorite: "never, ever, use these words to make a claim--all, never, none, always, every, etc."

I used "never, ever" in the last warning to be funny. Every few years, a student would chuckle. Most didn't get the joke or the exception.

So here's why I didn't trust the author: because they didn't do their homework. They didn't check to see if there were "good writers" who don't outline. I didn't read the post, so I don't know if they defined "good writer." 

I chuckled because there are a lot of "good writers" who don't outline. Plus "good writers" is very subjective. Who are these "good" writers?

Back in my teaching days, what I wanted my students to see was that the world isn't "us and them, black and white, heroes and villains." Plus, academic essays are persuasion--the student does research, makes their analysis, and hopefully honestly puts together an argument for whatever conclusions they made--persuade me, your reader, to consider your point of view. 

Here are three none outliners: Steven King, who isn't shy about telling people what he thinks of outlining, Lee Child, who isn't as vocal about it, and Nora Roberts. There are more, but these three are mega best sellers so millions of people think they are good writers.

Back in the 1990s, I used to go to the local meetings of the Romance Writers of America. Nora Roberts came as a guest speaker several times. I liked her because she was blunt and funny. She doesn't outline, and she is vocal about not outlining and not allowing editors to touch her word choices.

In my teaching days, I gave my students the list of inclusive words to avoid because using them immediately calls to mind exceptions. So all, every, none, no one, everyone, never, always send a clear message: if you don't outline you are not, nor can you be, a good writer.

There are always exceptions. Yes, there is irony in that and even in the case of my list, there are exceptions. "All US Americans talk too loud and are obnoxious." I lived in South America for ten years, and yes, many, many US Americans tourist are loud and obnoxious. I experienced it first hand.

But here's the problem: Not all Americans have those qualities--some do, but not all. 

Of course, there can be times words like always, never, all are the right word for a particular situation. You can use them for humor, for emphasis, for hyperbole, and in today's world to create fear. 

If you hear or read someone who makes those kind of claims, "Listen up, and you'll see the assumptions and the bias. Or the hyperbole or satire, or someone who wants to make you fearful."

I once had a student tell me this: "You live in your ivory tower of academia and people like you [academics?] don't have any idea what ordinary people go through." 

For a second or two I thought about telling him about my ivory tower existence. I grew up poor with alcoholic parents, and my mother was a single mom trying to survive on a crappy salary. I didn't say those things. I let his remark go into the empty spaces his words left in the classroom. Nervous students looked at me rather than him.

What interested me was that he had an assumption about university professors--all academics live in ivory towers. I'm assuming that these ivory towers are nice and affluent places. I know a lot of professors. A few come from privilege, most don't. It's easier to vilify than to understand.

Sweeping generalities have built-in problems. But they're great for click bait.