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One of the best books you can find on the topic has been written by Stephen King and is called "On Writing". The first part is a small auto-biography as he sta

One of the best books you can find on the topic has been written by Stephen King and is called "On Writing". The first part is a small auto-biography as he states that "to understand writing you must understand what happens in the life of a writer". The second part is full of clever and useful advices, including ones close to the one in this article. Even if you don't like the author, you should really read this book if you're serious about writing. http://www.amazon.com/On-Writing-Stephen-King/dp/0743455967 http://www.amazon.com/On-Writing-Stephen-King/dp/0743455967

ctdonath 15y ago
Great book for the aspiring writer. Most of it is filler material, but the ~16 pages of real writing advice is worth at least the cover price. One recommendation that stuck with me is to avoid words ending in "ly". I now make that effort, and the results are an improvement.
- dvdhsu 15y ago
  > One recommendation that stuck with me is to avoid words ending in "ly". I now make that effort, and the results are an improvement. For those who are wondering at the rationale behind this: many adverbs end in -ly. "The brown fox quickly ran", "she urgently asked", "he mercilessly ate his salad", etc. Adverbs should be avoided, because, as danso notes, you must "show, not tell". When the brown fox "quickly" runs, you're telling the reader what happened. Similarly, when she "urgently" asks, you're not showing the reader what's going on. Instead, you can describe what's happening with better verbs: "the brown fox sprinted after his dinner", "she pleaded for the answer key", "he attacked the tomato in his salad". That's just one way to do it, of course. You can also describe the action in detail: "After skewering his tomato, Jessie brought it up to his mouth, where it tumbled into his esophagus".
runevault 15y ago
I actually read the book, and found most of the advice (besides the no duh basics like you have to keep writing no matter what) pretty unsurprising, but then I only read it last year after having read a LOT of other books on the topic as well as completed a couple novels and a lot of failed attempts. Perhaps it's good for people newer to the craft but once you get past a certain point I actually would NOT recommend going back and reading it. Though to be fair at this point the only books on the craft I buy talk about specific topics (Dialogue, description, subtext, etc).
- dchest 15y ago
  The first part is still entertaining, though.
hcrisp 15y ago
Another book to read if you like this kind of thing is "Revising Business Prose" by Richard Lanham. In it he shows how to resuscitate business-speak into readable text. Many of his examples could have been taken verbatim from my place of work. I have heard colleagues use "orientate" and "updation" intead of "orient" and "update". Sadly, that is really how some people speak!

ctdonath 15y ago

Great book for the aspiring writer. Most of it is filler material, but the ~16 pages of real writing advice is worth at least the cover price. One recommendation that stuck with me is to avoid words ending in "ly". I now make that effort, and the results are an improvement.

dvdhsu 15y ago
> One recommendation that stuck with me is to avoid words ending in "ly". I now make that effort, and the results are an improvement. For those who are wondering at the rationale behind this: many adverbs end in -ly. "The brown fox quickly ran", "she urgently asked", "he mercilessly ate his salad", etc. Adverbs should be avoided, because, as danso notes, you must "show, not tell". When the brown fox "quickly" runs, you're telling the reader what happened. Similarly, when she "urgently" asks, you're not showing the reader what's going on. Instead, you can describe what's happening with better verbs: "the brown fox sprinted after his dinner", "she pleaded for the answer key", "he attacked the tomato in his salad". That's just one way to do it, of course. You can also describe the action in detail: "After skewering his tomato, Jessie brought it up to his mouth, where it tumbled into his esophagus".

runevault 15y ago

I actually read the book, and found most of the advice (besides the no duh basics like you have to keep writing no matter what) pretty unsurprising, but then I only read it last year after having read a LOT of other books on the topic as well as completed a couple novels and a lot of failed attempts. Perhaps it's good for people newer to the craft but once you get past a certain point I actually would NOT recommend going back and reading it. Though to be fair at this point the only books on the craft I buy talk about specific topics (Dialogue, description, subtext, etc).

dchest 15y ago
The first part is still entertaining, though.

hcrisp 15y ago

Another book to read if you like this kind of thing is "Revising Business Prose" by Richard Lanham. In it he shows how to resuscitate business-speak into readable text. Many of his examples could have been taken verbatim from my place of work. I have heard colleagues use "orientate" and "updation" intead of "orient" and "update". Sadly, that is really how some people speak!