Writing to Sell

"The desire to write grows with writing." (Desiderius Erasmus)

"I wrote a thousand words every day." (Jack London)

"I write when I'm inspired, and I see to it that I'm inspired at nine o'clock every morning." (Peter De Vries)

A poem . . . begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. . . . It finds the thought and the thought finds the words. (Robert Frost)

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling. To be natural is to be obvious, and to be obvious is to be inartistic. (Oscar Wilde)

"Though the story of the Fourth Wise Man came to me suddenly and without labor, there was a great deal of study and toil to be done before it could be written down. An idea arrives without effort; a form can only be wrought out by patient labor.

"If your story is worth telling, you ought to love it enough to be willing to work over it until it is true—true not only to the ideal, but true also to the real. The light is a gift; but the local color can only be seen by one who looks for it long and steadily.

"Artaban (the Fourth Wise Man) went with me while I toiled through a score of volumes of ancient history and travel. I saw his figure while I journeyed on the motionless sea of the desert and in the strange cities of the East.

"And now that his story is told, what does it mean?

"How can I tell? What does life mean?  If the meaning could be put into a sentence, there would be no need of telling the story."

(Henry van Dyke, from his Preface to The Story of the Fourth Wise Man, Silver Classics, Bridge-Logos Publishers.)

"Amateurs write when they feel like it; professionals write regardless." (Oscar Wilde)

Before beginning the task of writing a non-fiction book, research the bookstores to see if there are other books already on the market like the one you're planning to write. If so, and you MUST write your book, determine first how you can make your book different than the ones on the market. What niche can your book fill that the others do not? If you cannot find one, write some other book. No publisher wants a book that is simply a carbon copy of books already published.

"Since I had started to break down all my writing and get rid of all facility and try to make instead of describe, writing had been wonderful to do. But it was very difficult, and I did not know how I would ever write anything as long as a novel. It often took me a full morning of work to write a paragraph." (Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast, Copyright © 1964 Ernest Hemingway Ltd.)

Mark Twain to a young friend: "I notice that you use plain, simple, language, short words, and brief sentences. That is the way to write English. It is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it."

Also by Mark Twain:

"I never write 'metropolis' for seven cents when I can get the same price for 'city.'"

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug."

A famous writer was lecturing at a college. During a break, one of the students came up to the writer and said, "I want to be a writer. Do you think I could be one?"

Well ... I don't know," said the writer. "Do you like sentences?"

Those who wish to become good writers should endeavor—before they allow themselves to be tempted by the more showy qualities—to be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid.

This general principle may be translated into practical rules in the domain of vocabulary as follows:

Prefer the familiar word to the far-fetched.
Prefer the concrete word to the abstract.
Prefer the single word to the circumlocution.
Prefer the short word to the long.
Prefer the Saxon word to the Romance."
(H. W. Fowler)

It was Red Smith who said there was nothing hard about writing: "Just sit down in a chair, open a vein, and start bleeding."

Most of those who say they aspire to be writers, want to have written rather than to write.

"Produce! Produce! Were it but the pitifullest infinitesimal fraction of a Product, produce it, in God's name! 'Tis the utmost thou hast in thee? Out with it, then. Up, up! Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy whole might. Work while it is called Today—for the night cometh, wherein no man can work." (Thomas Carlyle)

Principles of Clear Writing

1. Keep sentences short. (Under 20 words average. Don't use several long sentences in a row—break them up with short sentences.)
2. Keep paragraphs short. (Six lines average.)
3. Prefer the simple to the complex. (In both words and sentences.)
4. Prefer the familiar word.
5. Avoid unnecessary words.
6. Use action verbs
7. Use the active voice.
8. Use declarative sentences.
9. Write like you talk.
10. Use contractions—they relax your writing and make it read more like spoken language. As Samuel Jackson said, "The pen must at length comply with the tongue."
11. Use expressions your reader can picture. (Use picture words, figures of speech.
12. Tie in with your reader's picture. (Start with what your reader knows, and work from there.)
13. Make full use of variety. (Don't use the same words over and over and over.)
14. Write to express, not impress. (Don't say, "An ornithological specimen in digital captivity is worth double that concealed in umbrageous foliage." Say, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.")
15. Question any word over three syllables. "Little people use big words, big people use little words."
16. Prune out the little qualifiers—"a bit," "a little," "sort of," "kind of," "quite," "rather," "pretty much," and the one that's used very often, "very." Don't hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident. Don't diminish your authority, make your reader believe in what you write. Don't be kind of bold. Be bold.
17. Watch out for "-tion" words. "He gave a demonstration of the proper utilization of the modifications that were performed on the engine." "He showed how to use the changes that were made on the engine."
18. Don't use expressions like "I think" or "In my opinion" or "I believe." In so doing you divert the reader's attention to yourself. State what you think, give your opinion, tell what you believe. Don't hedge. Be bold. Be the expert.
19. Quote Scripture verses exactly as they're written and punctuated in the Bible version you're using. Don't do it from memory. Check your Bible.

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