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Writing, Briefly

  • Writing, Briefly

    March 2005

    <!--<i>(Informal surveys of referring urls suggested demand for
    essays that were short and didn't mention Lisp.)</i>
    -->
    (In the process
    of answering an email, I accidentally wrote a tiny essay about writing.
    I usually spend weeks on an essay. This one took <!--44--> 67 minutes-- 23
    of writing, and <!--21--> 44 of rewriting.)

    I think it's far more important to write well than most people
    realize. Writing doesn't just communicate ideas; it generates them.
    If you're bad at writing and don't like to do it, you'll miss out
    on most of the ideas writing would have generated.

    As for how to write well, here's the short version:
    Write a bad version
    1 as fast as you can; rewrite it over and over; cut out everything
    unnecessary; write in a conversational tone; develop a nose for
    bad writing, so you can see and fix it in yours; imitate writers
    you like; if you can't get started, tell someone what you plan to
    write about, then write down what you said; expect
    80% of the ideas in an essay to happen after you start writing it,
    and 50% of those you start with to be wrong; be confident enough
    to cut; have friends you trust read your stuff and tell you which
    bits are confusing or drag; don't (always) make detailed outlines;
    mull ideas over for a few days before
    writing; carry a small notebook or scrap paper with you; start writing
    when you think of the first
    sentence; if a deadline
    forces you to start before that, just say the most important sentence
    first; write about stuff you like; don't try to sound impressive; don't hesitate to change the topic on the fly;
    use footnotes to contain digressions; use anaphora to knit
    sentences together; read your essays out loud to see (a) where you stumble
    over awkward phrases and (b) which bits are boring (the
    paragraphs you dread reading); try to tell the
    reader something new and useful; work in fairly big quanta of time;
    when you restart, begin by rereading what you have so far; when you
    finish, leave yourself something easy to start with; accumulate
    notes for topics you plan to cover at the bottom of the file; don't
    feel obliged to cover any of them; write for a reader who won't
    read the essay as carefully as you do, just as pop songs are
    designed to sound ok on crappy car radios; <!-- read
    writers you like, and try to figure out what makes you like them;-->
    if you say anything mistaken, fix it immediately;
    ask friends which sentence you'll regret most; go back and tone
    down harsh remarks; publish stuff online, because
    an audience makes you write more, and thus generate more
    ideas; print out drafts instead of just looking at them
    on the screen; use simple, germanic words; learn to distinguish
    surprises from digressions; learn to recognize the approach of an
    ending, and when one appears, grab it.
07 Aug 06

payperpost

  • get paid to blog - mhedayat on 2006-08-07
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