Amy Sue Nathan

Educational television

If you’re not familiar with the TV show “Two and a Half Men,” I’ll tell you it would not be listed under “educational” or even “appropriate.”  I delight in the hijinx and politically incorrect adventures of the characters at 10:30pm almost every night – and I never thought I’d use dialogue from this show as a writer’s reminder.

Here’s the scenario:

Uncle Charlie (Charlie Sheen) takes teen nephew Jake for pizza.  Jake sees a cute girl and Uncle Charlie wants to coach him on how to go over to meet her.  Keep in mind, Jake is not the sharpest tack in the shed.

Uncle Charlie: I’ll give you the signal, and then you saunter over.

Jake: Saunter?

Uncle Charlie: Walk.

Jake: If you wanted me to walk, why didn’t you just say walk? You don’t have to make up words.

OK, maybe I was wrong.  Maybe Jake IS sharp.

Vocabulary is an important part of writing, and sometimes characters do saunter.  But even more times than that, they walk.  And if someone is walking, no other words are needed.  Eloquence and good writing are not synonymous word choice — it’s a combination –how you use the words you choose.

I think Uncle Charlie wanted Jake to saunter — and saunter is not a irrelevant term. But also, you have to know your audience.  And while we need to give our readers credit to understand us, figure things out and follow the paths we set for them — and it’s good to use a varied dialogue in a context consistent with your character — it’s also OK to keep it really simple.

I try to write what I mean — and then always edit through rewrites and revisions to remove extraneous words and make things clear, removing ambiguity and question.  That doesn’t mean giving away secrets or doing away with subtle foreshadowing – it means conscious, careful word choices and combinations appropriate to your character and your audience.  And that simple and direct are good things.

Thanks Jake.