Tips for Writing and Life
Posted: May 10, 2010
A distinguished writer and longtime professor shares a wealth of advice he’s been compiling for (and from) his students for decades.
by Leslie Epstein
A distinguished writer and longtime professor shares a wealth of advice he’s been compiling for (and from) his students for decades. Included are lessons learned and forgotten, advise important to rookie and veteran communicators, and tidbits that will make you laugh - at yourself.
A few tidbits from Tips for Writing and Life:
- As for those stories you’re going to hand in—while not doing too much violence to your natural style, try to use as few adjectives and especially adverbs as possible. Be simple and direct, not convoluted and fancy. To paraphrase George Orwell, don’t use a pound word when a shilling word will do. Here are some other wise words from H.G. Wells on the same subject: “I write as straight as I can, just as I walk as straight as I can, because that is the best way to get there.” And from Ezra Pound: “AFTER you have abs. mastered simple (even to platichood) style you can start convolutin’.” And the single wisest thing ever said about creative writing was this, from Elsa Lasker-Schüler: “A real poet does not say azure. A real poet says blue.”
- Aristotle, one last time: “But the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learned from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars”—hence, perhaps, some intuition of the hand of the gods in making all things one. Nonetheless, limit your similes to two a page, tops, and make them count; that is, be sure they nail down the point you are after, and do so with the swift, short, hard stroke of a hammer on a tack. Do not extend them, e.g., “He nailed down his point like a hammer on a tack, striking the blow with such force that even the most ignorant listener, etc., etc.” Make your point and hurry on.
Read the complete piece, Tips for Writing and Life
Biz Tip Website: Writer's Digest
