If you want to make small people laugh, quote business parlance at them. Windows of opportunity. Blue sky thinking. Thinking out of the box. Nothing like taking down a corporation by discovering that children just laugh at all the phrases. Consistently.
Now bear in mind that kids can come up with some cracking phrases themselves, which grown-ups smile about. But theirs tend to be logical, descriptive in a more concrete way. Of course they are colding something by putting it in the snow. If you are excited by the speed of your toy car, of course it goes much more quicker…and so on.
Thinking about all this, the phrase purple prose came to mind. I don’t know the background to it – and I’m not even off to google it either, I’m trying to keep writing. But I do know it’s to do with overblown phrases, too much description. When you find yourself chewing through the lists of adjectives, time to move on.
I used to think Hemingway’s style of writing was impossible for a gabbler like me. He went fishing. He shot things. He wrote short sentences. But little by little, I am learning to cut back. Writing for the web helps, because my eyes tell me I can’t take in too much at a time.
So you end up writing short things.
Like this.
What’s the point of all this? Somewhere in the middle, between the babble and the brevity, is a writing style that will work for me. It’s good to be reminded not to be too complicated. In writing for myself, I’m equally not here to make the sale in 40 words or fewer.
Like kids, I think there’s some merit in learning by doing – and maybe inventioning some new things along the way.