Contrast
I dropped by the office late one Friday night to pick up some papers I
wanted to work on over the weekend. I had been working and playing
hard and was exhausted. I knew the way through the dark hallways and
didn’t bother to turn on any lights. I climbed the stairs and even guessed
correctly where they ended. I took a few more steps down the hall to
where the hallway turned. I might as well have had my eyes closed in the
pitch-blackness. I turned left and continued walking in the darkness, until
something reached out and punched me right in the nose – hard!
It was the wall. I saw stars as I realized that I had turned one or two
steps too soon. I had no idea what made me so sure I knew where the
wall ended.
This time I reached out in front of me, felt the wall, and made my way
along it to the light switches. The sharp pain throbbing in my nose sent
endorphins pouring through my veins and I felt surprisingly good, but
knew the natural pain killers wouldn’t last.
With a flip of the switch, light filled the hallway. No more surprises.
No more bruises. With the lights on, I could distinguish between walls
and halls. This experience demonstrates the value of contrast. Without
contrast, everything blends into sameness and nothing stands out.
Just like my walk through the darkness, some writing comes out flat. It
has no texture, no change, and all its information gets lost in an endless,
bland expanse.
Contrast, on the other hand, makes points stand out clearly. You can’t
miss them. It’s what makes finding a needle in a haystack so difficult,
but so easy in your bedroom carpet with bare feet. Needles really stand
out from the soft carpet. Your toes know the difference. They sense the
contrast.
Lack of contrast is what makes finding a polar bear in a snowstorm
so hard, just as your paper becomes a white out when it lacks contrast,
causing readers to black out. They will likely miss important ideas and
assertions, which will pass by without even being noticed.
Previous chapters taught how to work with the lines – the ideas,
organization, wording, etc. The following writing skills make a difference
between the lines. Master these skills and people will read your words,
raise one eyebrow, and say “Wow!” without quite understanding what
makes them sound so good.
Enough talk. Time to learn about creating effective contrast in your
writing. You’ll learn two different types of contrast – physical contrast
dealing with how your writing sounds and looks on the page which readers
actually hear or sense as they read, and logical contrast between ideas
which helps readers understand differences and similarities.