What is the one thing you have to say?
The third step you have to take before your write anything is to decide on the main idea of your document. No matter how long or short it is, you have to be able to sum up the point in one clear, complete sentence.
When U2 released The Joshua Tree, Time magazine quoted Bono as saying “Writing songs is easy. Writing good songs is hard.”
Writing is easy. All you need is something that leaves a mark on something else. A computer just makes it faster for your fingers to keep up with your brain.
But to write something worth reading?
Anything people will want to read is about something. In high school, we learned that “something” is called the thesis statement. That word sounds impressive, but all it means is the main point.
A lot of people have trouble with the thesis statement. The result is that extended staring at the blank screen or page, or writing sentences and paragraphs, then deleting the whole thing and starting over and over again.
Their problem is that they don’t know what they’re writing about. Before you start to write your document, write that thesis statement: one sentence that sums up the main point.
Back to the first rules of writing
To do that, you have to go through the first two steps in the GRIP process: you have to have a goal or a purpose for writing—what you hope your document will accomplish—and you have to know whom you are writing for. This will help you get to the thesis statement: the reason your reader will want to take action that will help you to accomplish your goal.
For this to work, as I have said, you have to know what motivates that reader.
Every good letter, memo, report or proposal has a thesis—a single sentence that sums up what it’s about.
I just finished reading Too Big to Fail, Andrew Sorkin’s minute-by-minute telling of the 2008 financial meltdown. At 555 pages, plus index and list of sources, it has a single thesis statement: “In the end, this drama is a human one, a tale about the fallibility of people who thought they were too big to fail.”
However, you don’t need to write the thesis statement explicitly in your document. It’s usually best to get to the point immediately, but depending on your goal, your reader and the context, you might decide to put it at the end, or to imply it and let the reader come to that conclusion. That technique is occasionally used in sales and advertising messages, but it’s hard to pull off.
Advertisers are very good at this. The thesis of every beer ad is “Drink this beer and you’ll get laid!” Of course, they don’t say that explicitly. But that’s the message.
Writing the thesis statement is not easy. It may not be the first thing that you do. But you have to do it.
First, have a clear conception of the goal of your document. Write it down in terms of action that you want the reader to take.
Next, make sure that you know your reader as well as possible, including whatever motivations might support that action in your goal statement, and anything about the reader that would work against it.
Some writing guides recommend the “hidden words” technique. Start with “The most important thing I have to tell you is …” After you fill in the blank, you delete the opening clause—“hiding” it.
The thesis statement has to compel the reader toward the action of your goal. Take your time with it. Write several versions and think about them. Write down other facts or ideas that will go into your document. But before you actually start writing the body of your memo, report or proposal—or whatever it is—you have to settle on the thesis statement.
“A vote for our candidate will keep your taxes low.”
“The accident was the result of poor safety training.”
“A new furnace will save money over a year.”
The thesis can be long, it can be a compound, complex sentence, but it has to be a complete, grammatically correct sentence. Often, the writing of it can crystallize your thinking; I sometimes find that I had a vague idea, but writing it down forces me to make it real and concrete.
Fiction
Novels can be long and complex. They can be about a lot of different things. But there still has to be a central, main theme that links all the other subplots and conflicts.
Moby Dick: Captain Ahab wants revenge on the whale—other subplots include the growing of characters like Ishmael, questions about the existence of God and the nature of good and evil.
One of my favourites, Foucault’s Pendulum: Our imaginations drive our behaviour, even when we don’t know it—plus a lot about the foolishness of conspiracy theories and some touching observations about the different sides in war.
The Jossing Affair: Love can cross the division between the oppressor and the oppressed.
There are many more. Now, I’m going to ask you to enter in the Comments the main themes or thesis statements of your works in progress. Remember, each one has to be a single sentence. I’ll respond!