On Writing Well

Text in black are quotes; text in green are my notes. I sometimes write in Spanish.

• Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is. #

  • La calidad de tu trabajo o servicios es importante, pero nadie puede competir contra tu personalidad, porque solo tú la tienes.
  • La gente prefiere pagar a alguien que sea de confianza, o que los entretenga.
  • Como escritor, en realidad no vendes sobre lo que escribes, vendes quién eres.

• Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon. #

  • La finalidad de escribir es compartir ideas, sin dejar de ser tú.
  • No uses palabras pomposas solo para parecer inteligente, a menos que así hables en el día a día.
  • La personalidad es lo que importa, y si intentas sonar más interesante solo por estar escribiendo, no podrás conectar e identificarte con las personas porque tus personalidades entrarán en conflicto.

• But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. #

• Writers must therefore constantly ask: what am I trying to say? Surprisingly often they don’t know. Then they must look at what they have written and ask: have I said it? #

• Reexamine each sentence you put on paper. Is every word doing new work? Can any thought be expressed with more economy? Is anything pompous or pretentious or faddish? Are you hanging on to something useless just because you think it’s beautiful? Simplify, simplify. #

• This is the problem of writers who set out deliberately to garnish their prose. You lose whatever it is that makes you unique. The reader will notice if you are putting on airs. Readers want the person who is talking to them to sound genuine. Therefore a fundamental rule is: be yourself. #

• Writing is an act of ego, and you might as well admit it. #

• Such considerations of sound and rhythm should go into everything you write. #

• As Red Smith put it, “‘Myself’ is the refuge of idiots taught early that ‘me’ is a dirty word.” #

• If you must use “comprise,” use it right. It means “include”; dinner comprises meat, potatoes, salad and dessert. #

• I don’t want to give somebody my input and get his feedback, though I’d be glad to offer my ideas and hear what he thinks of them. #

• The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis. #

• “In what capacity am I going to address the reader?” (Reporter? Provider of information? Average man or woman?) #

• “What pronoun and tense am I going to use?” “What style?” (Impersonal reportorial? Personal but formal? Personal and casual?) #

• “What attitude am I going to take toward the material?” (Involved? Detached? Judgmental? Ironic? Amused?) #

• “How much do I want to cover?” “What one point do I want to make?” #

• The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn’t induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead. #

• Always look for ways to convey your information in narrative form. #

• [...] when you’re ready to stop, stop. If you have presented all the facts and made the point you want to make, look for the nearest exit. #

  • Si ya explicaste tu idea e hiciste lo posible por convencer a tu lector, ahí déjalo. Haz tu punto, clarifícalo, y vete.

• Use active verbs unless there is no comfortable way to get around using a passive verb. #

• Don’t say you were a bit confused and sort of tired and a little depressed and somewhat annoyed. Be confused. Be tired. Be depressed. Be annoyed. Don’t hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident. #

  • Prefiero hablar con personas que se sienten seguras de sí mismas. Lo mismo sucede con la escritura. ¿A qué autor preferirías leer si solo te doy estás dos oraciones? A: Lo que hizo el profesor me molestó un poco. B: Lo que hizo el profesor me molestó. Yo me iría con B. No solo transmite la misma información en menos palabras, también me imagino a una persona segura. Confiada. Si quieres transmitir enojo, enójate. Sé seguro.

• Don’t start a sentence with “however”—it hangs there like a wet dishrag. And don’t end with “however”—by that time it has lost its howeverness. #

• The interview itself is one of the most popular nonfiction forms, so you should master it early. #

• print. The seemingly simple use of a tape recorder isn’t simple; infinite stitchery is required. #

• When you get people talking, handle what they say as you would handle a valuable gift. #

• The best gift you have to offer when you write personal history is the gift of yourself. #

• Anyone who thinks clearly can write clearly, about anything at all. #

• Imagine science writing as an upside-down pyramid. Start at the bottom with the one fact a reader must know before he can learn any more. The second sentence broadens what was stated first, making the pyramid wider, and the third sentence broadens the second, so that you can gradually move beyond fact into significance and speculation—how #

• any subject can be made clear and robust by all you writers who think you’re afraid of science and all you scientists who think you’re afraid of writing. #

• I recited my four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity. #

• Managers at every level are prisoners of the notion that a simple style reflects a simple mind. Actually a simple style is the result of hard work and hard thinking; a muddled style reflects a muddled thinker or a person too arrogant, or too dumb, or too lazy to organize his thoughts. #

  • Un estilo simple de escritura puede ser relacionado con una mente simple. Pero es todo lo contrario. Destilar cada oración en su unidad más pura y funcional es trabajo difícil. Quien escribe con palabras pomposas, o le da muchas vueltas a las ideas, es quien tiene una mente simple.

• If what you write is ornate, or pompous, or fuzzy, that’s how you’ll be perceived. #

• If you work for an institution, whatever your job, whatever your level, be yourself when you write. #

• As a reviewer your job is more to report than to make an aesthetic judgment. #

• The most boring sentence in the daily newspaper is the last sentence of the editorial, which says “It is too early to tell whether the new policy will work” or “The effectiveness of the decision remains to be seen.” If it’s too early to tell, don’t bother us with it, and as for what remains to be seen, everything remains to be seen. Take your stand with conviction. #

• “Well,” the man from Texas would break in, “let’s not go peeing down both legs.” It was a plea he made often, and it was the most inelegant advice I ever received. But over a long career of writing reviews and columns and trying to make a point I felt strongly about, it was also probably the best. #

• Humor is the secret weapon of the nonfiction writer. #

• most humor, however freakish it may seem, is based on fundamental truths. #

• “All humor must be about something—it must touch concretely on life,” #

• Don’t alter your voice to fit your subject. #

  • Es común querer juntarte con los populares en la secundaria; son los que tienen más atención y aparentan ser "cool". El problema es que usualmente tienes que dejar de ser tú, parcial o completamente, para poder encajar. Y eso nunca termina bien. Lo mismo sucede cuando escribes. Puedes intentar cambiar tu estilo y tu voz para mejor encajar en el tema que estás hablando. Pero al final será como si otra persona lo hubiese escrito.

• Clichés are one of the things you should keep listening for when you rewrite and read your successive drafts aloud. #

• Clichés are the enemy of taste. #

• After verbs, plain nouns are your strongest tools; they resonate with emotion. #

• Go with what seems inevitable in your own heritage. Embrace it and it may lead you to eloquence. #

• What does it take to be a comic writer?” He said, “It takes audacity and exuberance and gaiety, and the most important one is audacity.” Then he said: “The reader has to feel that the writer is feeling good.” The sentence went off in my head like a Roman candle: it stated the entire case for enjoyment. Then he added: “Even if he isn’t.” #

• Your best credential is yourself. #

• It’s not enough just to take your readers on a trip; you must take them on your trip. Make them identify with you—with your hopes and apprehensions. #

• Decide what you want to do. Then decide to do it. Then do it. #

• The small stories that still stick in your memory have a resonance of their own. Trust them. #

  • ¿Tienes alguna historia que siempre recuerdas y por alguna razón sigue sobreviviendo el paso de los años? Por algo ha de ser. Escribe sobre ella y encuentra que la hace tan memorable. Tus lectores lo podrían apreciar.

• But finally the purposes that writers serve must be their own. What you write is yours and nobody else’s. #