Journalism for Women | Page 9

embroidery, an ornament superimposed:
this is what the beginner fails to grasp; she somehow cannot rid herself
of the superstition that after the meaning is precisely expressed,
something further remains to be done.
I have put clearness and naturalness as the two attributes of good style.
Clearness need not be defined. Naturalness will not suffer definition; it
depends on the individual, and must be determined by the individual.

What is proper for one person may be improper for another. Carlyle
was ungraceful with impunity; Lamb could not have been so. We may
no more choose our styles than our characters. Style, like character, can,
it is true, be trained--strengthened, chastened, refined, rendered shapely;
but in essentials it must for ever remain as it originally was. It is the
expression, not only of the thoughts immediately to be set down, but of
the very man himself, and with the man it will develop. It cannot be
invented; it cannot be concocted. It must be a natural growth--watched,
tended, fostered, pruned, but after all a natural growth.
* * * * *
To find out, to uncover, one's true style; to lay bare one's self: how is
this to be set about? Primarily, by experiment in the way of imitation,
which is the commencement of all art. Every great artist--Shakspere,
Beethoven, Velasquez, Inigo Jones--has started by imitating the models
which he admired and to which he felt drawn. You must do the same. It
is the surest and indeed the only way of arriving at one's true
individuality.
I do not find it easy to recommend exemplars to the aspirant; so many
writers of indubitable greatness have been fatal to their disciples; take
the trite instance of Carlyle, whose influence twenty years ago ruined
styles innumerable. Shakspere and Congreve, possibly our two supreme
prose artists, have styles which, in directness and freedom from
mannerism, are well suited to be models for the young journalist; but
since they wrote only dialogue, now archaic in many details, it is very
difficult for the young journalist to follow them with profit in
descriptive work. Among modern writers, Mrs. Alice Meynell has a
style unsurpassed in simplicity, fineness, and strength. Nevertheless I
hesitate to name her as a model, lest the student, in trying to attain her
succinct perfection, should fall into mere baldness. On the whole, my
inclination turns towards Huxley's Essays. Here you have a style which,
though by no means great, possesses every good quality, and has
besides no tricks to lead the beginner astray; nothing more adorably
fitted to the uses of newspaper work could be conceived. To these
might be added the letters of Cowper, and the more popular essays of

Matthew Arnold.
Paraphrasing is an excellent practice. Read a passage from the author of
your choice; grasp thoroughly its purport, but do not learn it by heart.
Then close the book, and endeavour to set down in fresh words the
thing you have read. In a few days (not at once) compare your work
with the classic. The comparison will induce humility, and humility is
the beginning of knowledge. After a period of pure imitation you will
begin, at first almost imperceptibly, to diverge into a direction of your
own. Then proceed warily, making the curve very gradual.
Never attempt to pass judgment on your writing before it is a week old.
Until a reasonable interval has elapsed, it is impossible for you to
distinguish between what you had in your mind and what is actually on
the paper; the brain, still occupied with the thought to be expressed,
unconsciously supplies the omissions and clarifies the obscurities of the
written word, which thus seems more satisfactory and convincing than
it really is. With the passage of time, the thought fades, and the written
expression of it, no longer illuminated by memory, must then stand
with you on its intrinsic merits. When thus examining your work, read
it aloud: the process will disclose weaknesses of all sorts not previously
suspected.
Do not destroy anything which you have written. It is well from time to
time to refer to past work. To find that one has progressed is always an
encouragement to further effort.
So far generally.
As this book does not happen to be a guide to style, it is impossible
here to discuss every point likely to arise during the aspirant's
self-education in the art of literary expression. But there are several
scarlet sins against which she must be briefly warned.
The worst of them is the sin of using trite expressions--phrases, figures,
metaphors, and quotations; such as--not to mince the matter, took
occasion to, won golden opinions, the cynosure of all eyes, mental
vision, smell of the lamp, read mark learn and inwardly digest, inclines

towards, indulge in, it is whispered, staple