Writing on Writing: Simplify
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
If you’re looking for advice on writing, there are innumerable books and articles on writing (Well, duh. –Ed.). Having said that, you can easily cut through all of them and narrow the whole pile down to just two items, one a (very small) book, and the other an essay. I’m speaking from experience here, since every so often I’ll go to the bookstore and add another to the pile, and read a bit, and then allow them to gather dust.
So if you’re looking for just the bare essentials, your starting point should be William Strunk’s The Elements of Style, later edited and updated by E. B. White. Whereas most style manuals are bulky, boring, pedantic, and expensive, Elements is concise and readable (It’s writing, isn’t it readable by definition? –Ed.) (Enough with the editorializing, you. –PB). And did I mention inexpensive?
The other is an essay, George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language. It’s not a primer or a how-to, as such. As is typical of Orwell, it’s more analysis and polemics. It’s also, typically, funny as hell. Anyway, if you’re either a writer or a reader (and I’d hope you’re one or the other, if not both), you need to read this. Yearly, if needed. Sample quotation:
Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Further reading:
You can find Orwell’s Politics and the English Language here, though I’d suggest buying it in the collection A Collection of Essays (Mariner, 1970) along with Strunk and White’s Elements of Style, from your favorite local/indie bookstore.