Whatever: Writing Tips for Non-Writers Who Don’t Want to Work at Writing

by bruceeisner on February 19, 2006

Link: Whatever: Writing Tips for Non-Writers Who Don’t Want to Work at Writing Here is an excerpt form the beginning:.

A writing question:

What writing tips would you whisper to those who aren’t aspiring professionals, but would like to write better? If I asked you about losing weight and you said "Diet and Exercise" you’d be a) correct and b) ignored. So no ideas that take work. We want the quick fix! Tips like "Edit your work" aren’t useful. "Gerunds are your friend" are.

So, the task here: Tell y’all how to write better without you actually having to make an effort. Fine. Here’s how I would do it.

(NB: These work pretty well for people who do want to be pro writers, too.)

Here is the first of the ten tips the author offers:

0. Speak what you write: This is rule zero because all other rules follow on this. Basically: If what you’re writing is hard to speak, what makes you think it’s going to be easy to read? It won’t be. So speak out loud what you write. If you can’t speak it naturally, rewrite it. Simple.

There are nine more of these tips at Whatever: Writing Tips for Non-Writers Who Don’t Want to Work at Writin.

Note: this post came by way of populicio.us new links in past week.

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