28 March 2005

Zero To How To Write In 67 Minutes

Well, more accurately, Paul Graham on Writing, Briefly. Great, practical tips from a prolific and practicing essayist. Some of my favorites:

don't hesitate to change the topic on the fly


use simple, germanic words


learn to distinguish surprises from digressions


learn to recognize the approach of an ending, and when one appears, grab it


UPDATE: don't contradict your own advice in an advice essay
Eagle-eyed contrarian jjj took issue with advising anaphora for sentance knitting and prescribing simple germanic words in the same essay.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

you know how it pains me to take the contrarian view...

it makes me want to kick the ass of a guy who writes a "how to write" article that includes 'guidance' such as:

"use anaphora to knit sentences together"

not sure how the arcane linguistic term anaphora fits in as a "simple germanic [sic] word"

so here's an addendum to your list of useful nuggets for beginning writers:
"don't contradict your own advice in an advice essay"

g said...

Smack! Consider it added.