Word Hero

In short, figures do more than fancy up your language. Like Shakespeare’s Prospero, they can endow your purposes with words that make them known. A well-turned phrase can inform your thoughts and help you decide what you really want to accomplish.

Sound Symbolism. The position of your mouth makes things seem big or small, significant or unimportant. Onomatopoeia. A sound effect that grew up and became a word. Sound Repeaters. Uses the same sound at the beginning, middle, or end of consecutive words.

The Pith Method. Write down what you want to say, then find the two or three key words that sum up your points. Use these words in a fabulous new sentence. You’ll see the pith method throughout the book as we use it to ready your thoughts for tools to come.

THE TOOLS

Instead of working out your thoughts in your head or scribbling them down, start instead with a key line. Write it down and then, before you write any other line, perfect that one.

When you want to come up with something memorable—not just original phrasing but an original thought—sometimes you should start with the words. Words first, then thought.

three kinds of recording mechanisms hold words in the memory. Collectively, I call them the SPA: sounds, pictures, and associations.

(a) Ask, What’s it all about? (b) Put those “true confessions” in a sentence. Next comes (c), Apply a tool to make the words stick.

This chapter will show you how to produce a pith from a jumble of thoughts. We will look at ways to produce memorable lines that help fuel the rest of your thinking.