What to read to become a better writer (opens in new tab)

[insert Sean Bean “One does not simply read to become…” meme]

I don’t make a living as a writer but writing has made my living. Here’s my advice to improve as a writer in general, not as a writer of a specific genre or purpose, and not to improve a specific piece of writing.

0. All advice needs salt.

1. Recognize that all writing is personal and all reading is subjective. No one has a perfect lens. Be willing to be wrong. Even if you’re right, guaranteed someone else thinks you’re wrong.

2. Are you writing to be authentic or writing to be popular? Writing to persuade or to inspire? To amuse or confront? All of those may be in conflict at times. Recognize and accept the conflict, then make your choices in peace. See rule #1.

3. Everyone loves simple language.

4. But try not to be bland. This is the value of rhythm, voice, word choice, tropes and schemes, idioms, patterns, and so on.

5. There really is something to copying other people’s writing as a way of finding your own writing voice. So you need to read widely to find people worth copying. In general, avoid the angry advice writers.

6. Practice. Click the Publish button once in a while. You don’t end up pitching for the Yankees by reading about baseball.

7. Writing is pretty fantastic, isn’t it?

8. Language evolves. Just like foxes and toaster ovens. Accept it. Thank people for their critique of your apparent misuse of language and then please continue challenging the rules.

9.

10. Leave something to the imagination. Think of it like an offering to the gods.

11. No one cares about your writing as much as you do. See rule #1.

From Schopenhauer's essay, "On reading and books":

> No literary quality can be attained by reading writers who possess it: be it, for example, persuasiveness, imagination, the gift of drawing comparisons, boldness or bitterness, brevity or grace, facility of expression or wit, unexpected contrasts, a laconic manner, naïveté, and the like. But if we are already gifted with these qualities—that is to say, if we possess them potentia—we can call them forth and bring them to consciousness; we can discern to what uses they are to be put; we can be strengthened in our inclination, nay, may have courage, to use them; we can judge by examples the effect of their application and so learn the correct use of them; and it is only after we have accomplished all this that we actu possess these qualities. This is the only way in which reading can form writing, since it teaches us the use to which we can put our own natural gifts; and in order to do this it must be taken for granted that these qualities are in us. Without them we learn nothing from reading but cold, dead mannerisms, and we become mere imitators.

Gutenberg link: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11945/11945-h/11945-h.htm#li...

I have found re-reading my own writing helps tremendously.

We often do not appreciate how vague we are and how many biases we embed in our writing until we read them again outside of our current mindset.

This is why portant emails should be composed, and then wait until later before re-reading.

You will often find yourself rewriting entire communications because your original message was unclear/emotional/combative/etc...

Two books which I read this year that have helped me become a better writer are,

Charles Bukowski On Writing

Kurt Vonnegut Letters

These books aren’t so much about how to write better but more so a look into the minds of two good authors. Helped me get over some of the hurdles of writing. Probably not very useful if you’re looking to be an improved work document writer but for creative writing they were great.

The books that (I think) made the biggest impact on my writing are Zinsser's On Writing Well, everything Hemingway (e.g. The Sun Also Rises, A Moveable Feast), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Wind, Sand and Stars, and Beryl Markham's West with the Night.

The common theme being simplicity and informal, but correct, speech.

The article recommends having a good dictionary at hand, and that is absolutely correct advice. What I'd like to suggest is that, aside from writing that absolutely must use terms from the last 100 years, use the Webster 1913[1] as your dictionary of choice. It's become a fetish, of sorts, among writers like Cory Doctorow [2] and others who approvingly link to James Somers' May 18, 2014 post, "http://jsomers.net/blog/dictionary"[3].

Try it. Read its

[1] https://www.websters1913.com/

[2] https://boingboing.net/2014/05/29/you-should-try-the-1913-we...

[3] http://jsomers.net/blog/dictionary

Walter Mosley made an interesting observation about the writing process. When he rereads his first draft of a novel, he notes the places where the words go awry: where something is amiss; where a character seems shallow, poorly developed. (I'm just recalling this from memory.) Mosely simply notes those spots in the novel. And keeps reading. Right to the end. He says he finds that when he fixes those sections, that's when the writing starts to sparkle.

The book I read was Mosley, "This is the Year You Write Your Novel".

I guess his message is to not be aggrieved when one’s writing seems like sh*t. That observation might be the start of a good piece of writing.

Alternatively there's the quip of Oscar Wilde: “I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.”

I found recording a read aloud of what I write helps me condense writing flow.

Stephen King, On Writing. No matter what your writing style is or what your subject matter is, be it fiction or not, this book will turn any writer into a better writer.

Note that I didn't say it'll turn any writer into a good writer. It'll turn them into a better one. A good writer could become great and a terrible writer can become slightly less terrible. It's all subjective.

One thing I've learned is that some people have a way with words and some just don't. And there's nothing wrong with that. But all of us need to write at some point and that book will definitely help because it helps the person focus on what's most important to the story rather than what's the most important to the writer.

Orwell's Politics and the English Language is a masterful essay. Forget that he gets his own rules wrong when setting them (twice) - but it rarely fails. It also happens to be the basis for the Economist's style guide...

An essay on writing by Raymond Carver [1] (as well as pretty much anything by Raymond Carver and authors he mentions in the essay :)). It's about good fiction writing, but, I think, good to keep in mind for writing in general.

[1] https://bryanafern.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/on-writing-ra...

That is a pretty low effort list.

I have read dozens and dozens of books on writing, and for non-fiction nothing beats Writing with Style by Trimble.

There is one such book on how to write, absolutely the best in every way and recommended by the most eminent writers in the world. You can get it from any stationery store, and it only contains blank pages.

How to Write, Speak and Think More Effectively by Rudolph Flesch is still a great book and good bang for your buck. I got mine on bookfinder.com

My recommendation is First You Write a Sentence. by Joe Moran. It feels like a recent classic and I re-read chapters all the time.

Check out this old but gold Reader's Digest: How to Write and Speak Better[1].

[1]https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2180265.Reader_s_Digest

If you are pitching a far off idea it is good that when you read aloud the text you consider it from the perspective of the right measure of skepticism so that you can address the plain issues quickly and maybe contrast the alternatives that failed for similar reasons.

I've read the Pinker book. There were some useful takeaways. However, in general I found it long winded which is ironic as most writing tips include a recommendation of brevity.

Read it if you feel you must, but lower your expectations.

Writing advice is overrated. it's hard to know what readers will like. a lot of randomness involved. also, you need to build rapport or trust with the audience or reader, which is hard.

Without the paywall: https://archive.ph/20220925200441/https://www.economist.com/...

Vernacular Eloquence by Peter Elbow is my go-to.

This isn’t very interesting, these are all well known books you can find listed elsewhere. I was hoping for something original.

What's the point of linking to an article behind a paywall that all of us probably can't read?

I clicked with interest.

Ugly cookie popup was the first thing I read.

Then some big ads at the top and sides begged for my attention.

Next was the paywall box selling me some complicated subscription deal.

Dreaming of a world wide web that cherishes writing.

what to write to become a better writer

There's no such thing as better writer. You either have passion and then use inspiration to fuel that passion or you don't. Not everyone is privileged to have higher-education or have the ability to learn the entire Oxford dictionary.

I've worked with editors at Fast Company, Entrepreneur, TheNextWeb and others, and I have not _ever_ tried to read a book to make myself a better writer. What does that even mean?

And on numerous occasions I have gotten away with submitting first drafts that get published "as is" without anyone telling me otherwise. Am I some omnipotent writer, or were the editors incompetent? I doubt it.

I think what a lot of people also don't understand about writing is that some of the best work out there (articles, books, etc.), for the person who put it out - it can be compared to having participated in a triathlon because it has THAT immense of an effect on your mental state of being.

Want to be a better writer? Find out what your passion is and write about that. No book and no order of semicolons is going to make you "better" unless what you write about is what lights the fire underneath your feet.