This is based in part on William Cane’s “Write Like the Masters” (2009), partly on stuff Orwell said and partly on my own chance observations:
George Orwell gave some rules for writing:
- What words will express it?
- What image or idiom will make it clearer?
- Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
- Could I put it more shortly?
- Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?
And more particularly:
- Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech
which you are used to seeing in print. - Never us a long word where a short one will do.
- If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
- Never use the passive where you can use the active.
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
- Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
Of course there is more to it than just that:
- Write what you feel most strongly about. Orwell wrote his best stuff when he wrote about politics.
- Write when you are suffering: Yes. When Orwell wrote “1984”, he had tuberculosis. It made his main character, Winston Smith, more believable.
- Plot: keep it simple. It does not have to have a hundred twists and turns. A simpler plot will allow you to spend more time on your characters, your political opinions and other stuff.
- Characters: as the author you know everything about your characters – but your characters and readers do not! Keep them guessing and wondering. Like O’Brien in “1984”: Winston Smith did not know whose side he was on. But that helps to draw in both Smith and the reader.
- Evil villains: do not make them completely evil – that is not believable. Even Hitler loved animals. O’Brien was well spoken and personally kind. It was not clear how evil he was till the end.
- Repeat stuff: no one is going to remember everything you said in the first ten pages. So Orwell has Winston Smith return to his diary, return to his lover Julia, return to sayings like “Big Brother is watching you”.
- Ending: go for the worst possible ending. Have no mercy.
- Theme: You may not know your theme when you start writing but after the rough draft you will – or should. When you go back to edit your work cut the things that do not support your theme and milk the things that do. A theme, like Orwell’s theme of personal alienation in “1984”, will make your writing seem deeper and more solid: it will hang together better and have more meaning for your readers even if they cannot say in words what that theme is.
- Study and copy other writers: Orwell studied these, particularly the last two, whose passages he copied admiring their lack of adjectives:
- Aristophanes
- Jack London – good style and plotting
- Zola
- Melville
- W. Somerset Maugham
- Swift
See also:
I have always liked his political works, which more often than not is often overlooked
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This is interesting and helpful. However, people (writers) who like Orwell and want to write like him must ask themselves what is the thing they actually like. Orwell’s ideas? Orwell’s style? Something else?
These tips are good, but it’s impossible to use them for any type of writing. Like Orwell as much as you want, but I am not sure if it’s possible to write a romance novel using his advice. Which is not a bad thing, because romance novels usually suck.
What makes Orwell a great writer is the fact his style is perfect for his themes and ideas. Instead of thinking about the word count and number of adjectives, a writer must wonder whether his or her chosen style fits the theme, story and the ideas presented in the novel.
That’s why Tolkien is much better than most of the fantasy writers. Fantasy writers like elves, sword fights, dragons and map drawing. But Tolkien’s stories are more than that, and his writing is so powerful because of two important things: first, he uses the style that matches his themes. And second (and perhaps more important): he knew what he was doing. He was writing an imagined mythology. Which means he was educated enough to know history, linguistics and the way real myths are created. That is something your average fantasy writer doesn’t get. Having a vivid imagination is a plus, but it’s not what makes a story epic.
My favourite writers are people whose style is perfect for their themes. Also, to be a writer I like, he or she has to write about stuff that I find interesting, or else I’ll just say the writer is skillful, but I won’t read their books over and over again. Some of my favoruite authors are Tolkien, Orwell, Toni Morrison and Ian McEwan. I must admit there are only a few female authors I like.
The main problem I find with my writing is the fact I don’t know when to stop. I must learn how to use less words (how to describe and make a point using less words).
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Mira said:
“The main problem I find with my writing is the fact I don’t know when to stop. I must learn how to use less words (how to describe and make a point using less words).”
I set myself a word limit. When I write my posts I spend 33% to 50% of my time trying to get it below 500 words.
Sometimes it is hard to reach 500 words, like in posts on video vixens, but most of the time I have 550 to 700 words, sometimes even 1000 words, and I am trying to cut it down. The hardest one of all was the post on Malcolm X:
One trick I use is to look at long paragraphs and long words (more than two syllables). Both are often signs of long-windedness.
Another is to cut out unnecessary proper nouns and numbers. People put those in to make themselves sound like they know what they are talking about, but in most cases they can be cut without loss of meaning.
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Reflections On Gandhi by George Orwell
http://www.readprint.com/work-1260/Reflections-On-Gandhi-George-Orwell
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Wow, I need to take this post to heart. I struggle terribly to cut my posts down to a manageable size. They are often so long that nobody can be bothered to read them all the way to the end. 😉
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Nobody should be trying to write like someone else, they should be trying to write like themselves.
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Orwell was a great mind but he is still misunderstood by people who should know better, including the British writer Julian Barnes in a review he did on Orwell for the New York Review of Books. I picked him up on his misreading of Orwell at:
http://www.bretthetherington.net/Modules/Blog/Pages/BlogEntry.aspx?BlogEntryId=351
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Having read Mira’s comments above I have to say that I disagree about Tolkien being much chop and also that “these tips are good, but it’s impossible to use them for any type of writing.”
I think think Orwell’s 5 rules are excellent for non-fiction writing and quite probably for most kind’s of writing, including a lot (but not all) fiction…even poetry!
The first developmental phase of any creative process can surely be imitation, then later finding your own style. A person who does not admit to mimicking some of their influence to a certain degree, is not being honest.
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