5 ms·
-- All good writers are alike; all bad writers are bad in their own way. I'm not too sure about this... there are many ways to be a terrible writer, but most g
by bkirwi 12y ago
-- All good writers are alike; all bad writers are bad in their own way.
I'm not too sure about this... there are many ways to be a terrible writer, but most good writers still seem to have a distinctive style. (Is it just that 99.99% of writing is bad writing? Oh, probably.)
- jeorgun 12y agoI think this relates very directly to one of PG's essays¹: At an art school where I once studied, the students wanted most of all to develop a personal style. But if you just try to make good things, you'll inevitably do it in a distinctive way, just as each person walks in a distinctive way. Michelangelo was not trying to paint like Michelangelo. He was just trying to paint well; he couldn't help painting like Michelangelo. It's much easier to be distinctive than to be good, so if you're trying to optimize for the former you'll have a much harder time achieving the latter. ¹ http://paulgraham.com/taste.html http://paulgraham.com/taste.html