Many years ago, I began a began the journey of becoming a writer. I read dozens of books on writing and publishing. Eventually, I had read so much that it became difficult to keep track of all the information. I decided to take my hundreds of pages of notes and begin synthesizing it all into something more manageable. Here are a few paragraphs I wrote on the topic of writing, based on all the information I had read and compiled.
Writers love words
To become truly great at something, you have to have passion for it. The great veterinarian loves animals. The great athlete loves competition. The great woodworker has a passion for wood. To be a great writer, you must have a passion for words.
You can’t achieve greatness as a writer if you don’t enjoy reading words. You have to love reading in all its forms. That includes books, blogs, signs, advertisements, lyrics… you have to love words.
Writers pay attention to their surroundings. They convert every experience and feeling into words. They listen for the inflections in someone’s voice when they express frustration. They think about how it feels when an unexpected breeze hits their face on a sweltering summer day. They study the choice of words on a billboard. They note the rhythm of words in a song.
And then they write.
Writers write. Not all writers publish their work and they don’t all write books. But they all write.
Conveying knowledge
Writing is for storing knowledge. It is history. We write so that someone in the future may learn what we learned, experience what we experienced, and ponder the thoughts that we pondered. The only limitation of writing is language. Every language has words and rules for using those words. If everybody agrees on the same words and rules, then the writing succeeds in its purpose. It stores the knowledge and records the history for future readers to find.
The most basic rule for writing is simplicity. We write to pass knowledge to others. It becomes much harder to pass knowledge when the information is cluttered with needless words. In On Writing Well, William Zinsser states, “the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.” Only after you strip your writing down to the barest components should you build it back up. When you build it back up, only add the words necessary to convey the nuances of every thought.
Build your writing tool box
“I want to suggest that to write to your best abilities, it behooves you to construct your own toolbox and then build up enough muscle so you can carry it with you. Then, instead of looking at a hard job and getting discouraged, you will perhaps seize the correct tool and get immediately to work.” — On Writing, by Stephen King
As you gain experience writing, you collect tools that you use time and again. Every writing problem you solve adds another writing tool to your box. Stephen King imagines a physical toolbox where you put vocabulary and grammar on the top shelves. Lower in your tool box you can put more specialized tools for composition and finding your way out of specific problems.
Rules to write by
Every writer should learn the rules first. If you didn’t listen in English class, it’s time to take a crash course on grammar and composition now. Follow proper grammar unless you know what you’re doing. Whenever you get stuck in your grammar, use simple sentences as a crutch.
Paragraphs: Each paragraph should cover one topic. Begin the paragraph with the topic. End the paragraph with a sentence relating to the beginning.
Use active voice: Sentences with passive be-verbs are weak. Remove the weak be-verbs and substitute with actions. Don’t worry about those be-verbs in the first draft, but quash them in your next drafts. Be careful though. You have to use judgment. Some be-verbs are not weak. Sometimes there is no comfortable way to avoid them. You can leave those in.
Simplicity: Break up long sentences. Avoid big words, unless you want to confuse and bore your readers. The top priority is that your writing is easy to understand.
Adverbs. Avoid adverbs, especially in dialogue attribution.
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