Putting the Cart Before the Horse.

For some years before I turned pro, I was a keen amateur photographer. I was also much more into the swim of general life then, and so I encountered several other amateur photographers as well as being an avid reader of the better quality magazines. I noticed that my peers tended to fall into one of two categories when it came to gadgets like filters and extreme focal length lenses. There were those who took the view:

‘This is the picture I want to make. Is there a gadget that would help me do it better?’

And then there were those who took the converse view:

‘Here’s a gadget. What can I do with it to make a picture that will look fancy?’

Since I turned to writing, I’ve noticed that a lot of aspiring writers do the same with words. My own view is that writers need to find their own dialect, and it doesn’t have to be clever. What it needs to be is suitable for whatever the writer wants to say. Sometimes it needs to be lyrical, sometimes it needs to be quirky, and sometimes it needs to be simple.

Don’t misunderstand me; I’m a great lover of well crafted English. What turns me off is when it looks forced for its own sake.