[HN Gopher] What to read to become a better writer ___________________________________________________________________ What to read to become a better writer Author : gglanzani Score : 97 points Date : 2022-09-24 11:30 UTC (1 days ago) (HTM) web link (www.economist.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.economist.com) | trenning wrote: | Two books which I read this year that have helped me become a | better writer are, | | Charles Bukowski On Writing | | Kurt Vonnegut Letters | | These books aren't so much about how to write better but more so | a look into the minds of two good authors. Helped me get over | some of the hurdles of writing. Probably not very useful if | you're looking to be an improved work document writer but for | creative writing they were great. | bigmattystyles wrote: | Add Orwell's essay on the English language. | https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwel... | zeroonetwothree wrote: | This isn't very interesting, these are all well known books you | can find listed elsewhere. I was hoping for something original. | ayewo wrote: | At the end of the article, they link to their online writing | course that costs PS1,475 so this is more of an ad than an | attempt at originality. | | https://education.economist.com/courses/professionalcommunic... | freddyym wrote: | Orwell's Politics and the English Language is a masterful essay. | Forget that he gets his own rules wrong when setting them (twice) | - but it rarely fails. It also happens to be the basis for the | Economist's style guide... | kwijibob wrote: | I clicked with interest. | | Ugly cookie popup was the first thing I read. | | Then some big ads at the top and sides begged for my attention. | | Next was the paywall box selling me some complicated subscription | deal. | | Dreaming of a world wide web that cherishes writing. | eatonphil wrote: | The books that (I think) made the biggest impact on my writing | are Zinsser's On Writing Well, everything Hemingway (e.g. The Sun | Also Rises, A Moveable Feast), Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Wind, | Sand and Stars, and Beryl Markham's West with the Night. | | The common theme being simplicity and informal, but correct, | speech. | snitzr wrote: | How to Write, Speak and Think More Effectively by Rudolph Flesch | is still a great book and good bang for your buck. I got mine on | bookfinder.com | copperx wrote: | Huh, spam bots are getting better every day. That's a good book | suggestion. | koheripbal wrote: | I have found re-reading my own writing helps tremendously. | | We often do not appreciate how vague we are and how many biases | we embed in our writing until we read them again outside of our | current mindset. | | This is why portant emails should be composed, and then wait | until later before re-reading. | | You will often find yourself rewriting entire communications | because your original message was | unclear/emotional/combative/etc... | blockwriter wrote: | I've been doing an exhaustive review of my diaries from the | last 6 odd years. I am amazed by how many sentences start with | one idea, lapse in the middle, and conclude almost as if | another person had taken over. Evidently, some thought had | transpired in that interval, but I failed to transcribe it to | the page. | eatonphil wrote: | > portant emails | | portant? | exac wrote: | The point is that re-reading catches errors, like the | spelling of "important". | tomrod wrote: | > This is why portant emails should be composed, and then wait | until later before re-reading. | | Not sure if intentional, but if so this was a fantastic way to | emphasize your point! | mattbee wrote: | My recommendation is _First You Write a Sentence._ by Joe Moran. | It feels like a recent classic and I re-read chapters all the | time. | chiefalchemist wrote: | I've read the Pinker book. There were some useful takeaways. | However, in general I found it long winded which is ironic as | most writing tips include a recommendation of brevity. | | Read it if you feel you must, but lower your expectations. | TeacherTortoise wrote: | https://archive.ph/38AGY | [deleted] | montefischer wrote: | From Schopenhauer's essay, "On reading and books": | | > No literary quality can be attained by reading writers who | possess it: be it, for example, persuasiveness, imagination, the | gift of drawing comparisons, boldness or bitterness, brevity or | grace, facility of expression or wit, unexpected contrasts, a | laconic manner, naivete, and the like. But if we are already | gifted with these qualities--that is to say, if we possess them | potentia--we can call them forth and bring them to consciousness; | we can discern to what uses they are to be put; we can be | strengthened in our inclination, nay, may have courage, to use | them; we can judge by examples the effect of their application | and so learn the correct use of them; and it is only after we | have accomplished all this that we actu possess these qualities. | This is the only way in which reading can form writing, since it | teaches us the use to which we can put our own natural gifts; and | in order to do this it must be taken for granted that these | qualities are in us. Without them we learn nothing from reading | but cold, dead mannerisms, and we become mere imitators. | | Gutenberg link: | https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11945/11945-h/11945-h.htm#li... | [deleted] | mjw1007 wrote: | Did Schopenhauer go on to give any reasons to believe that the | things he was claiming there are true? | xboxnolifes wrote: | I dislike this view, for learning to write or anything else. It | has an implicit assertion that all human quality is innate, and | we only ever learn how to recognize and express it. This means | that we can never actually learn anything new, we can only | learn new ways to pull from our innate quality, and everything | else is just imitation. | | It implies we are born with some sort of immutable value locked | inside of us, which I disagree with. | rizzom5000 wrote: | I read it more like the word 'attain' means to internalize | those writing abilities are your own; and reading others will | not work to achieve developing such an ability. As such, this | advice is about the same as most advice I've seen from great | writers - read a lot, but write more. | geocrasher wrote: | Stephen King, On Writing. No matter what your writing style is or | what your subject matter is, be it fiction or not, this book will | turn any writer into a better writer. | | Note that I didn't say it'll turn any writer into a good writer. | It'll turn them into a better one. A good writer could become | great and a terrible writer can become slightly less terrible. | It's all subjective. | | One thing I've learned is that some people have a way with words | and some just don't. And there's nothing wrong with that. But all | of us need to write at some point and that book will definitely | help because it helps the person focus on what's most important | to the story rather than what's the most important to the writer. | notart666 wrote: | That's not how that works. Writing is about practice, | repetition and feedback. Improvement is gradual and lifelong to | say that only certain kinds of people get better is a pretty | bad take. Anyone can become competent at writing. It's just | many do not have the prerequisite requirements to begin | improving on certain parts and never learn of their deficencies | or how to fix them. | [deleted] | ohiovr wrote: | I found recording a read aloud of what I write helps me condense | writing flow. | weekendvampire wrote: | 100%. After I'm done with my last draft I always read the whole | thing loudly, and end up changing at least a word or two in | every paragraph. Usually it's the small stuff - eg. using "he | instead went" instead of "instead he went" because my brain | expects a sentence a certain way that "flows" well and I've | written something else. | jamiek88 wrote: | I've developed that further to getting Siri to read it out to | me. | ayewo wrote: | Even better is to listen to how your words flow using a Text- | to-Speech (TTS) tool. I got this tip on HN. | | I use it a lot for long articles that I've already spent far | too much time editing to help me catch sentences that could be | broken up for clarity. | waboremo wrote: | This is an amazing tip! I use TTS quite a lot for checking | certain accessibility issues, never once thought to use it | for my own writing. | queuebert wrote: | That is a pretty low effort list. | | I have read dozens and dozens of books on writing, and for non- | fiction nothing beats Writing with Style by Trimble. | pdm55 wrote: | Walter Mosley made an interesting observation about the writing | process. When he rereads his first draft of a novel, he notes the | places where the words go awry: where something is amiss; where a | character seems shallow, poorly developed. (I'm just recalling | this from memory.) Mosely simply notes those spots in the novel. | And keeps reading. Right to the end. He says he finds that when | he fixes those sections, that's when the writing starts to | sparkle. | | The book I read was Mosley, "This is the Year You Write Your | Novel". | | I guess his message is to not be aggrieved when one's writing | seems like sh*t. That observation might be the start of a good | piece of writing. | | Alternatively there's the quip of Oscar Wilde: "I was working on | the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a | comma. In the afternoon I put it back again." | skilled wrote: | There's no such thing as _better writer_. You either have passion | and then use inspiration to fuel that passion or you don 't. Not | everyone is privileged to have higher-education or have the | ability to learn the entire Oxford dictionary. | | I've worked with editors at Fast Company, Entrepreneur, | TheNextWeb and others, and I have not _ever_ tried to read a book | to make myself a better writer. What does that even mean? | | And on numerous occasions I have gotten away with submitting | first drafts that get published "as is" without anyone telling me | otherwise. Am I some omnipotent writer, or were the editors | incompetent? I doubt it. | | I think what a lot of people also don't understand about writing | is that some of the best work out there (articles, books, etc.), | for the person who put it out - it can be compared to having | participated in a triathlon because it has THAT immense of an | effect on your mental state of being. | | Want to be a better writer? Find out what your passion is and | write about that. No book and no order of semicolons is going to | make you "better" unless what you write about is what lights the | fire underneath your feet. | GavinMcG wrote: | > Not everyone is privileged to have higher-education or have | the ability to learn the entire Oxford dictionary. | | That you bring up education and vocabulary suggests that you | _do_ think there 's such a thing as better writers. One obvious | example: compare a given three-year-old to you. You are almost | certainly a better writer. Compare _you_ at three years old to | today. Same story. | | Sure, you may be right that passion is required. But why | dismiss skill? | skilled wrote: | Exactly, I am talking about _skill_ and the use of words as a | means to add flare to a story, but it does not make you | _better_. Just because you can translate a black and white | story (which conveys the message /lesson) using all the | colors of a rainbow does not make you better. | GavinMcG wrote: | Do you mean "flair"? | | You're right that people can disagree about what to value, | but I'd think that given a set of values, maximizing them | is better than not. If you're a writer who does care about | using all the colors of a rainbow, doesn't learning how to | use indigo and orange make you _better_ than when you only | knew black, white, red, and green? | dasil003 wrote: | > _Want to be a better writer? Find out what your passion is | and write about that. No book and no order of semicolons is | going to make you "better" unless what you write about is what | lights the fire underneath your feet._ | | That's fine if your goal is to become a Writer. However if | writing is just the means to the end of communicating an idea | or persuading an audience, then it may not be possible to align | your passion. That doesn't make improving your technique any | less important or achievable though. | skilled wrote: | Yes, and that what's I'm arguing. There should be a | distinction whenever a title such as "read this to become | better" is presented, especially for writing. | | There's no consideration for the absolute basic level of | entry to writing, and it imposes on the person an unrealistic | perspective which may lead that person on a meaningless | journey on "becoming" something that they are inherently not | able to become. | | Hence me mentioning higher education. I'm well aware of | people who are absolute artists with words, but that same | story can be said/explained in practical ways. | | Perhaps I should have made that clearer. | GavinMcG wrote: | It seems like you're using a different definition of | "better" than the article author or most of the people | responding to your comment. You seem to treat things as a | binary - as though the headline is only justified if it can | take a non-writer and turn them into a writer. And in that | light, your criticism makes sense: reading an article isn't | going to do the job without passion and a certain latent | capability. | | But I'd suggest that others mean "better" in the _relative_ | sense of "greater than" or "more" and mean it to refer to | skill or dexterity of a sort. If someone has a certain | degree of skill or dexterity - the degree that makes them a | member of the article's target audience - then, the author | is claiming, they can increase their skill by engaging with | the recommended material. And I'm curious whether you | disagree with _that_ position. | | If you agree with it, this might just be a case where | people are talking past each other based on different | definitions, despite agreeing about the substance of the | article. | copperx wrote: | Thank you. I'm not a writer, but there's an undeniable urge to | communicate when I feel excited about something, especially | when I have synthesized new knowledge. I suspect this urge is | universal. | | That being said, achieving clarity often requires tremendous | effort. | greymalik wrote: | > There's no such thing as better writer | | If someone hones their craft such that they become more | effective at articulating their thoughts, at making their | argument more persuasive, at moving their audience, at reaching | more people, wouldn't we say that they've become a better | writer than they used to be? | skilled wrote: | I'd call those people marketers. | unlaxedneurotic wrote: | Say there are two people with same understanding of a | nuanced argument. One fails to articulate that argument in | a written form such that the reader is able to understand | it. The other is successful in doing that. I'll say the | second person is a better writer. No marketing involved. | awinter-py wrote: | what to write to become a better writer | harrylove wrote: | [insert Sean Bean "One does not simply read to become..." meme] | | I don't make a living as a writer but writing has made my living. | Here's my advice to improve as a writer in general, not as a | writer of a specific genre or purpose, and not to improve a | specific piece of writing. | | 0. All advice needs salt. | | 1. Recognize that all writing is personal and all reading is | subjective. No one has a perfect lens. Be willing to be wrong. | Even if you're right, guaranteed someone else thinks you're | wrong. | | 2. Are you writing to be authentic or writing to be popular? | Writing to persuade or to inspire? To amuse or confront? All of | those may be in conflict at times. Recognize and accept the | conflict, then make your choices in peace. See rule #1. | | 3. Everyone loves simple language. | | 4. But try not to be bland. This is the value of rhythm, voice, | word choice, tropes and schemes, idioms, patterns, and so on. | | 5. There really is something to copying other people's writing as | a way of finding your own writing voice. So you need to read | widely to find people worth copying. In general, avoid the angry | advice writers. | | 6. Practice. Click the Publish button once in a while. You don't | end up pitching for the Yankees by reading about baseball. | | 7. Writing is pretty fantastic, isn't it? | | 8. Language evolves. Just like foxes and toaster ovens. Accept | it. Thank people for their critique of your apparent misuse of | language and then please continue challenging the rules. | | 9. | | 10. Leave something to the imagination. Think of it like an | offering to the gods. | | 11. No one cares about your writing as much as you do. See rule | #1. | adamisom wrote: | Damn good writing. | roland35 wrote: | What's rule #9?!? I need to know! | stanislavb wrote: | Thank you! | darkteflon wrote: | Superb. | sverona wrote: | Vernacular Eloquence by Peter Elbow is my go-to. | dnc wrote: | An essay on writing by Raymond Carver [1] (as well as pretty much | anything by Raymond Carver and authors he mentions in the essay | :)). It's about good fiction writing, but, I think, good to keep | in mind for writing in general. | | [1] https://bryanafern.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/on-writing- | ra... | notjulianjaynes wrote: | No discussion of Carver is complete without mentioning his | relationship with editor Gordon Lish. | | >Carver had been up all night reviewing Lish's severe editorial | cuts--two stories had been slashed by nearly seventy per cent, | many by almost half; many descriptions and digressions were | gone; endings had been truncated or rewritten--and he was | unnerved to the point of desperation. | | https://web.archive.org/web/20220617140639/http://www.newyor... ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-09-25 23:00 UTC)