C.S. Lewis’s advice on writing (taken from his letters):
- Turn off the Radio. (Stephen King says to turn off the television while Zadie Smith says to turn off the Internet!)
- Read all the good books you can, and avoid nearly all magazines.
- Always write (and read) with the ear, not the eye. You should hear every sentence you write as if it was being read aloud or spoken. If it does not sound nice, try again.
- Write about what really interests you, whether it is real things or imaginary things, and nothing else. (Notice this means that if you are interested only in writing you will never be a writer, because you will have nothing to write about…)
- When you give up a bit of work don’t (unless it is hopelessly bad) throw it away. Put it in a drawer. It may come in useful later. Much of my best work, or what I think my best, is the rewriting of things begun and abandoned years earlier.
- Don’t use a typewriter. The noise will destroy your sense of rhythm, which still needs years of training. (This would not apply to computers.)
- Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else. Take great pains to be clear. Remember that though you start by knowing what you mean, the reader doesn’t, and a single ill-chosen word may lead him to a total misunderstanding. In a story it is terribly easy just to forget that you have not told the reader something that he wants to know – the whole picture is so clear in your own mind that you forget that it isn’t the same in his.
- Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.
- Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “more people died” don’t say “mortality rose.”
- Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”: make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers “Please will you do my job for me.”
- Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”: otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.
- Be sure you know the meaning (or meanings) of every word you use.
I love how clear his writing is and how he uses the right word almost every time. He rarely overwrites or writes to show off.
Both Orwell and Hemingway would go further than Lewis and say to avoid adjectives altogether as much as possible. So would Somerset Maugham and Jonathan Swift, given how they wrote.
See also:
Great advice!
dbg
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Nice but there are a lot of “Dont’s.”
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I like this one, but i don’t know if writers can really give advice to writers as they all have their own styles.
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there are don’ts, because the task is yours, our’s, to DO.
crisp, concise writing is exactly that..
just as the way is not the way, if it cannot be followed,
counsel such as above, points out which way danger lies, and leaves one to profit from that wisdom.
bless.
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Oh dear me, you’re so right! Have I been really wasting my time reading these afvice columns? Oh well, at least I know how he wrote “Abolition of Man.”
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Actualy , my father was a not famous writer , had a couple of books published , but, did hang out with famous authors like , Nelson Algren (The Man With the Golden Arm / Walk on the Wild Side) .I also have a brother with one book published . And I rejected all that when I grew up , for music.So, besides seeing my father go to his writing station every morning, I cant give any more insight into the process of writing.
But, I see similarities in some of the advice that this person gives. Things like being simple and clear and dont clutter it up with over arrangement when that simplicity will do. Other things too , that I perciveive can be translated to the music process.
Things like if you dont finish a peice of writing, store it away, you might use it in the futuer, same thing with writing music.
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Most of the stuff i’m reading right now i get mad at because it doesn’t end the way i want it too.
People think i have issues. I wish i could write a letter to Beverly Jenkins:
Dear Ms. Jenkins,
I think you are a great writer of love stories. However, in your latest novel Captured, you should have not written children into the heroine’s past. That just didn’t work for me. She meets the man of her dreams yet she has to bring these tag-a-longs with her. What were you thinking? You could have just written into the plot that heroine meets hero, they fall madly in love, he takes her and then they have kids like five years from the date.
Oh wait, didn’t i say you can’t give writers advice?
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I always wanted to write fictional stories… however I am way too lazy to sit down and pick up a pen. I think love to write should be added to the list bc I don’t see how else anyone would conjure up the patience to write a healthy amount of literature
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I do…deadlines, contests that usually equals a 2,000-10,000 dollar prize, your mugshot in the journal or magazine publishing your stuff…or worse a darn grade in a creative writing class.
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I love this! It’s great advice for any kind of communication, whether it’s spoken word, storytelling through visual means like photography or film, and of course, writing. And #’s 7-12 are especially good for the kind of business or professional writing that most people do on a daily basis. I wish more people practiced this…
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This was really great advice! I’ve recently started writing so this helped me out. I bookmarked it because I know I will need it in the future.
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[…] cool tips from C.S. Lewis about writing, via […]
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At the very least, William F. Buckley, his son Chris Buckley, nor Christopher Hitchens could survive much of that advice. And I’m trying to think how Ol’ Bill Shakey would do under such strenuous demands… Of course, he can be considered an exceptional exception. 😉
(Don’t use smileys…)
I think it more important to know the rules, and know when to break them.
On the other hand, it is good advice for many bloggers.
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“Ransom Trilogy” is really good
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I love his work, so as a writer, I appreciate this list all the more. It’s interesting how writing has changed though: now, I find writing by hand very distracting, since it takes so long and gets painful after a while. Probably how he felt using the typewriter.
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Reblogged this on I Didn't Just Wake Up This Morning with a Craving and commented:
My favorite author. These pages are good as well:
http://io9.com/5899571/writing-advice-from-cs-lewis-was-both-adorable-and-concise
http://www.christianwritingtoday.com/7-writing-tips-from-c-s-lewis/
http://www.tillhecomes.org/write-like-c-s-lewis/
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The Chronicles of Narnia, love this. “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe”. My personal favorite.
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I like the fourth, to write about interest and not just to write, be a writer.
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[…] second blog, by Julian Abagond, summarises material from Lewis’s wider […]
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This is an interesting article. It would have been better had you left out your two cents when presenting the reader with Lewis’ words. A person interested enough to read this article is most likely intelligent enough not to need your interpretation of what he was saying.
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