Into the Fire

A word that brings to mind a few things . . .

If you order a Scotch neat, you want a shot poured into a glass without ice or anything else.

If you keep a house, a desk, a car, or whatever neat, it means in order, not messy.

If you respond to something with "Neat!", you think it's cool.

If you look up "neat" in Roget's International Thesaurus, you will find these word listing references under it: cattle; shipshape; shapely; skillful; elegant; plain-speaking; chic; unmixed; tidy; excellent.

So I'm going to stretch this word to apply to the writing of fiction. If I say an author's writing is neat, I mean it's tidy in the sense that the so-called rules of writing have been served, applied, and are present in the book. One might assume this is a good thing, a compliment. And in some cases it might be true. Most of the time if I say the writing is neat, I do not mean it as an endorsing comment. The reason for this lies in the unimaginative factor.

If you recall your English grammar lessons from elementary school on through high school -which possibly only those in the writing industry do – you know the application of commas, sentence structures, and a bunch of other rules can overwhelm the story factor. And create the unimaginative factor. Creating stories is not about the use of proper grammar. It's about using correct grammar when it doesn't interfere with dialogue, the flow and tempo of the story, and when it fits into the style of the particular story (author's approach) without proclaiming how correct the prose appears in its written form.

Depending on your personality, being labeled a "neat freak" either appeals to you or insults you. If you're proud of the label because you enjoy the "tidy, etc." classification, kudos to you. However, if I refer to your writing as "neat", in my eyes, most of the time, you should be either insulted or willing to take another look at that unimaginative factor.

Father, so much of what we do in writing has different appeal. You know who we are and who you desire our writing to reach. We ask you to make it so, and we thank you for all you do for us. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.