Your Opinion Matters
How writing to the editor will hone your skills
By Cindy Layton
I’m one of the few people who still reads a paper copy of The Boston Globe. Each morning it gets delivered to my front doorstep. As archaic as that sounds, it’s an act of faith, that the news is still being reported, and of support, for an institution that battles every day to avoid becoming one of the former newsrooms of the nation.
That’s not to imply that I agree with everything I find in those pages. Often, I’ve strongly disagreed and let them know. My disagreements, published in the letters to the editor, have sometimes sparked further disagreement.
Published or not, from a writing perspective, there is much to be gained from the exercise of writing a letter to the editor of a newspaper.
The focus is on brevity.
Most letters to newspapers must conform to rules for length. The Globe limits submissions to 200 words or less. Editing becomes an analysis of every word. Clever phrasing or expansive backstory quickly gets the axe. Each sentence must address only the issue at hand and sometimes, despite compliance with length, the editor will still make cuts. If you’re working on a query or a synopsis, the experience of writing to the editor will sharpen those skills. If your fiction is filled with description or too long on dialogue, use those skills to consider if every word is necessary.
It makes a writer check their emotions.
Fired up and ready to fight is good for motivation but probably less effective as a persuasion technique. Better to spend editing time removing inflammatory language and overly confrontational stances. Passionate but reasonable is a goal that translates to all varieties of writing – opinion, non-fiction, even query letters. Taking a business-like, measured approach is often helpful in gaining trust with the reader. Even in fiction writing, less is often more. The voice doesn’t have to scream to be heard. The POV lens doesn’t have to focus so intently on a character to reveal their conflict.
Accept responsibility for authorship
Newspapers have rigid policies against publication of an anonymous letter. (Anyone who’s read the postings of social media is well informed of the risks of anonymity.) The Globe requires full disclosure of the name and town the writer lives in but, for the letter-writer, that submission comes burdened with an eternity label. Part of editing involves scrutiny of the content itself. Does the letter express well-supported ideas or opinions, or does it reflect an outpouring of emotion that may change upon further consideration?
Putting a name to the writing, in ordinary times, acknowledges the responsibility of authorship. In these interesting times, however, writers may find themselves hesitant to reveal their authorship in fear of retaliation, which is a far different matter. All writing is under attack. Books are being banned, professors are being fired, journalists are being harassed. The threats are real. Only the writer can assess the level of risk that is acceptable to them. But writers of any genre: journalists, fiction, nonfiction, etc., must be aware of the source of their own internal editor.
Editors are reading to see if your writing is concise, accessible, and of interest to their readers. Your readers are looking for those same things.
