The Business of Being More Outspoken

I announced, in the previous post, my intention to gripe sooner when I feel that someone is treading upon me. And I find that's doing good things for me and my treaders.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to make that attitude do good things for my writing. Certainly it should--since the very essence of being outspoken is being overwhelmingly clear. And, in spite of lots of effort, I am easily misunderstood.

Half of me has been trying for years to overcome that problem, personally and professionally. The other half has been finding ways to sabotage the attempt.

For example, I recently decided to ramp up the volume in a stretch of pages. I successfully did so. Then I reread them after a lapse of time. I saw that what I'd done was to make all the scenes in the section uniformly loud and dramatic. As a result, nothing in the sequence has any emphasis and nothing stands out. I might as well not have bothered; a loud monotone is the same as a quiet monotone.

See what I mean by sabotage?

Well, I'm aiming to be through with this sabotage. I believe both halves of me are convinced.