I just finished listening to a CBC Radio interview with Clive James. He’s one of those fascinating writers who also speak in complete sentences and paragraphs, off the top of his head as if from a prepared text that’s informative, entertaining and engaging. He’s led a wonderful life and he’s been paying attention, it seems, to everything.
He said something that will stick with me: “Sayability.” In everything he writes, one of his tests for whether it’s worthy is whether he can say it, perform it, speak it to an audience and be easily understood.
Nice. It’s a solid standard and makes me want to check out his book Cultural Amnesia.
I can say that.
Filed under: Writers, writing tips, Clive James, writing tip
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