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People mean different things when they say "writer," and it's worthwhile untangling a few different types. * Writers who make a living writing * Writers who d

by vonnik 10y ago

People mean different things when they say "writer," and it's worthwhile untangling a few different types. * Writers who make a living writing * Writers who don't (yet) * Fiction writers: Novelists and short-story writers * Poets * Journalists: reporters, war correspondents, editors * Bloggers * Corporate: Technical writers, Marketing copy writers, etc. * Academics all stripes These categories aren't mutually exclusive, but they each represent a different type of writing, which itself requires a different practice, approach or method. There are, in fact, many handbooks for being a writer, and almost all of them are written to serve a particular type of writer and not others. The creative writing departments of America have produced piles of writing about writing (about writing -- gaah ... self-referential recursion! No one escapes a medium describing itself.). Some of the classics are: * The Elements of Style - Strunk and White * Politics and the English Language - Orwell https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm * Hemingway on Writing https://www.scribd.com/doc/156100470/Ernest-Hemingway-on-Writing https://www.scribd.com/doc/156100470/Ernest-Hemingway-on-Wri... * Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style - Erasmus (the opposite of Strunk...) * And so on... The best handbook of all, though is simply the study of great writers whose work you love, as the author points out. Anyone serious about fiction or prose should dive into the 19th-century Russian and French novelists, Virginia Woolf, an annotated Shakespeare, etc. It's all there just waiting for us. In that sense, every piece of good writing is a handbook on writing. (Fwiw, I made a living as a reporter and editor for about 10 years.)

klodolph 10y ago
Not that Strunk and White is bad, but it's a peculiar choice to list first because it is mediocre and there are so many other options which are better. At the very minimum, Strunk and White is a very contentious entry, and people (like me) will come out of the woodwork to attack it. * Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace, Joseph Bizup * The Chicago Manual of Style (depending on what kind of writer you are, a different guide may suit you better) * Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott * On Writing, Stephen King
- achairapart 10y ago
  ...in On Writing, Stephen King writes: "There is little or no detectable bullshit in that book. (Of course, its short; at eighty-five pages it's much shorter than this one.) I'll tell you right now that every aspiring writer should read The Elements of Style. Rule 17 in the chapter titled Principles of Composition is "Omit needless words." I will try to do that here". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style#Reception https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style#Receptio...
  - klodolph 10y ago
    From the linked section: > The book's toxic mix of purism, atavism, and personal eccentricity is not underpinned by a proper grounding in English grammar. It is often so misguided that the authors appear not to notice their own egregious flouting of its own rules ... It's sad. > aging zombie of a book ... a hodgepodge, its now-antiquated pet peeves jostling for space with 1970s taboos and 1990s computer advice I'm not saying that this book is terrible, just that it is mediocre, spits out good advice but not couched in good practice, is a bit old-fashioned, et cetera. There are better books out there. Stephen King's book On Writing is better in spite of the fact that Stephen King recommends Strunk and White. I think that the reason people like the book is because it says things that you would agree with. "Omit needless words." How can you dislike a book that says such good things? But it doesn't surround the advice with solid examples the way Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace does, and it doesn't go into depth the way a proper style guide like Chicago does, and it doesn't have the more down-to-earth "how to be a writer" advice like King's or Lamott's works do. So I don't recommend it. (It's also quite curious that you quoted a tertiary source such as Wikipedia rather than King.)
- loganmhb 10y ago
  I second the recommendation of Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace. That book did more than any other to help me both write more clearly and explain to others how to do so (was a writing tutor in college). Many writing books give concrete advice on trivialities and retreat to vague prescriptions on subjects like elegance and clarity. This book is the only one I've read that actually studies those aspects of writing and offers actionable advice on how to make writing clearer, more graceful and more elegant.
AndreyErmakov 10y ago
>> The best handbook of all, though is simply the study of great writers whose work you love That is definitely the way to approach things. If you come into writing by choice then it's because you've been drawn to it. Which in its turn means you have read works of others and have been inspired by them. Use those as your handbooks then, learn from the great, imitate them and eventually discover your own path. It's not like you've never read anything of consequence in your life and all of a sudden you decide you're going to turn into a writer. Doesn't work that way. There are no "Writing for dummies" or "Learning writing in 20 days" manuals. You just start writing because you can, when you become ready for it.

by vonnik 10y ago

klodolph 10y ago

Not that Strunk and White is bad, but it's a peculiar choice to list first because it is mediocre and there are so many other options which are better. At the very minimum, Strunk and White is a very contentious entry, and people (like me) will come out of the woodwork to attack it. * Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace, Joseph Bizup * The Chicago Manual of Style (depending on what kind of writer you are, a different guide may suit you better) * Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott * On Writing, Stephen King

achairapart 10y ago
...in On Writing, Stephen King writes: "There is little or no detectable bullshit in that book. (Of course, its short; at eighty-five pages it's much shorter than this one.) I'll tell you right now that every aspiring writer should read The Elements of Style. Rule 17 in the chapter titled Principles of Composition is "Omit needless words." I will try to do that here". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style#Reception https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style#Receptio...
- klodolph 10y ago
  From the linked section: > The book's toxic mix of purism, atavism, and personal eccentricity is not underpinned by a proper grounding in English grammar. It is often so misguided that the authors appear not to notice their own egregious flouting of its own rules ... It's sad. > aging zombie of a book ... a hodgepodge, its now-antiquated pet peeves jostling for space with 1970s taboos and 1990s computer advice I'm not saying that this book is terrible, just that it is mediocre, spits out good advice but not couched in good practice, is a bit old-fashioned, et cetera. There are better books out there. Stephen King's book On Writing is better in spite of the fact that Stephen King recommends Strunk and White. I think that the reason people like the book is because it says things that you would agree with. "Omit needless words." How can you dislike a book that says such good things? But it doesn't surround the advice with solid examples the way Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace does, and it doesn't go into depth the way a proper style guide like Chicago does, and it doesn't have the more down-to-earth "how to be a writer" advice like King's or Lamott's works do. So I don't recommend it. (It's also quite curious that you quoted a tertiary source such as Wikipedia rather than King.)
loganmhb 10y ago
I second the recommendation of Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace. That book did more than any other to help me both write more clearly and explain to others how to do so (was a writing tutor in college). Many writing books give concrete advice on trivialities and retreat to vague prescriptions on subjects like elegance and clarity. This book is the only one I've read that actually studies those aspects of writing and offers actionable advice on how to make writing clearer, more graceful and more elegant.

AndreyErmakov 10y ago

>> The best handbook of all, though is simply the study of great writers whose work you love That is definitely the way to approach things. If you come into writing by choice then it's because you've been drawn to it. Which in its turn means you have read works of others and have been inspired by them. Use those as your handbooks then, learn from the great, imitate them and eventually discover your own path. It's not like you've never read anything of consequence in your life and all of a sudden you decide you're going to turn into a writer. Doesn't work that way. There are no "Writing for dummies" or "Learning writing in 20 days" manuals. You just start writing because you can, when you become ready for it.