One more thing about finding out more

More Words of Wisdom to add to last week's (actually because I forgot to put it in, although it's terribly important.) One of the best ways of exploring a text to see what you can do with it is by experimenting with changing the punctuation. Put in some imaginary commas, at random. Take out a full stop so that the words run on. Throw in a question mark at an unexpected place.

Some of the results will be nonsensical but it will be surprising if you don't find new emphases or new insights. Try it and see.

Less is more: sometimes the words will do all the work

The Words of Wisdom this week are: ‘Less is more: sometimes the words will do all the work.’ That comes in two parts and both depend on the interaction between the actor and the minds of the audience. Less is more because if inner emotion is expressed in a subtle way the audience will read the inner emotion that the actor is generating and find it convincing, but if the emotion is over-expressed the audience will find it exaggerated and unbelievable. Sometimes the words will do all the work because a large part of what an involved audience is doing is decoding the meaning of the words it is hearing. Lines with a highly emotional content don’t need to be decorated with artificial histrionics, just say the words and the audience will do the rest. Less is more: sometimes the words will do all the work.