
Ask HN: How to become a better at writing? - soulbadguy
Can someone suggest a good starting point (on-line courses, books,blog etc...) to improve my writing skills. 
I am mainly interested in technical writing ( research papers, blog post, source code comments and documentation), but i would also like to be able to construct a narrative text around a string of arguments when i need to debate&#x2F;convince someone by text.
Random questions :
I am an avid reader, are there ways i can use my reading to improve my writing? (maybe getting into the habit or writing a review&#x2F;summary of books i read? )
Is there an on-line community where i can post text i wrote and get some constructive feedback ?
======
nsheth17
Former professional writer for the Wall Street Journal here. The dirty little
secret of writing is that it never gets easy. It might look like other writers
can bust out beautiful seamless prose without breaking a sweat, but what you
don't see are the hundreds of little revisions and rewrites that happen,
sometimes just inside their brain. Writing is hard, and stays that way.

Because writing, at its most fundamental level, is the art of making your own
ideas more clear to yourself. So how do you become a better writer? Become a
more clear thinker. And yes, that is hard. Ironically, continuing to write is
one of the best ways to do it.

~~~
soulbadguy
this really resonate with me. Even through school, i got some compliment on my
writing from time to time, but i think i assume i was/doing something wrong
because it never seemed to become easier or more natural. Maybe i just need to
keep at it. Any idea where i can contructive feedback on what i write ?

"Because writing, at its most fundamental level, is the art of making your own
ideas more clear to yourself" : this is quotable :)

Beside writing, any other though on becoming a better thinker ?

------
rudimental
Five steps: 1) Read good writing, especially in the genre in which you want to
write.

2) Write first drafts. I prefer to think of it as vomiting words to a page.

3) Edit. Ultimately, this is what will make the writing good.

4) Get good feedback. Have a small group of people you work well with give you
constructive feedback. They have to be invested enough to care and closely
read one or more drafts.

5) Talk with people about the technical topics. This can help you clarify your
thinking.

------
noreasonw
An application: Grammarly, a course
[https://www.coursera.org/learn/communication-in-the-
workplac...](https://www.coursera.org/learn/communication-in-the-workplace)

I think you should have a fixed position (perhaps you are eclectic) and try to
convince someone, then try to change the position and think otherwise. To
convince someone is to know about what they expect, some psychology required.

The best thing is to have something interesting to say. Why do you want people
to read you? Do you have something interesting to say? Are you going to write
a book?

~~~
soulbadguy
Thanks for the link; To answer your question as to why i want to write, first
i love beautiful text. I read almost exclusively non fiction books and on a
pretty wide variety of subjects. So by beauty here i am not so much referring
to the aesthetic style, but more to the way some authors seems to have such a
clear flow/structure in the way they present their material, that it almost
make me feel smart to read them. It happens very often that i would reread a
page or a section of a book, simply because while i remember the point made
and the arguments used, the flow between the arguments was so natural that
it's a joy to read.So part of wanting to write is just me trying to understand
that mechanic.

Secondly i think there is level of insight that one can only reach by writing
consistently on subject. So i want to write first to refine my own thinking
and also write well enough so other people want to read and criticize/engage
my ideas. I want to use writing as a way to develop my ability to communicate
complex ideas better, and also to synthesise new perspective from a related
web of ideas (booth of which i think are what make a good author/writer).

------
Teichopsia
You'll have to pardon the lack of links. It's past midnight over here and I
logged in real quick from my phone.

There is a course on grammar that just started last week on edx, so far seems
to be good. There is another one which i can't recall neither the name nor if
it's on edx or coursera nor if it started already or when it begins on writing
essays or something along those lines.

What mindcrime and nsheth17 said is basically the jist of it. You gotta right
to become good at it, everyday, like anything else in life. Practice,
practice, practice. Read, read, read. And in this case, write every day.

------
ch215
You won't go far wrong following the rules from George Orwell's Politics and
the English language:

1.) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used
to seeing in print.

2.) Never use a long word where a short one will do.

3.) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

4.) Never use the passive where you can use the active.

5.) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can
think of an everyday English equivalent.

6.) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

------
donaldselby88
There are some useful tips to become a good writer. In my school days I was
not able to complete academic writing tasks. The problem was I know about the
topic very well but I was not able to express my ideas in English. One of my
friend suggested [http://essaysorigin.com/](http://essaysorigin.com/) which
help me to solve my writing problems by providing inexpensive and best quality
essays.

------
donaldselby88
There are some useful tips to become a good writer. In my school days I was
not able to complete academic writing tasks. The problem was I know about the
topic very well but I was not able to express my ideas in English. One of my
friend suggested [http://essaysorigin.com/](http://essaysorigin.com/) which
help me to solve my writing problems by providing inexpensive and best quality
essays.

------
mindcrime
Stephen King said something like "To become a better writer, write a lot and
read a lot". Here's a couple of articles that discuss that idea more:

[http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/dreamgates/2011/06/read-...](http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/dreamgates/2011/06/read-
a-lot-write-a-lot-dream-a-lot-stephen-king-on-writing.html)

[http://writetodone.com/how-to-use-reading-to-become-a-
better...](http://writetodone.com/how-to-use-reading-to-become-a-better-
writer/)

Beyond that, there are, of course, tons of books for writers, including some
specifically for tech writers. A lot of what you'll find on the shelf at, say,
Barnes & Noble is about fiction writing, but then again, to some extent you
could say that good writing is good writing regardless of whether it's fiction
or non-fiction. I don't claim to be a great writer, but I can share a few
titles from my own bookshelf on writing:

1\. _The Elements of Style_ \- Strunk & White

2\. _On Writing Well_ \- William Zinsser

3\. _NLP For Writers_ \- Bekki Hill

4\. _A Certain 'Je Ne Sais Quoi'_ \- Chloe Rhodes

5\. _A Manual For Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations_ \- Kate
L. Turabian

6\. _The Elements of Technical Writing_ \- Gary Blake & Robert W. Bly

7\. _The Art of Scientific Writing_ \- Ebel, Bliefert, Russey

8\. _Writers Digest Handbook of Magazine Article Writing_ \- Michelle Rubert
(ed.)

9\. _On Writing_ \- Stephen King

10\. _Zen In The Art of Writing_ \- Ray Bradbury

11\. _Eats, Shoots & Leaves_ \- Lynne Truss

12\. _Where Do You Get Your Ideas_ \- Fred White

13\. _The Complete Guide to Article Writing_ \- Naveed Saleh

14\. _HBR Guide To Better Business Writing_ \- Bryan A. Garner

15\. _Make A Scene_ \- Jordan E. Rosenfeld

16\. _Beginnings, Middles, & Ends_ \- Nancy Kress

I'm also a big believer in having a strong vocabulary, even though I don't try
to write in a pretentious, sesquipedalian fashion very often. But sometimes it
helps to have that "just right" word available. To that end, I recommend:

17\. _Big Words You Should Know_ \- David Olsen, Michelle Bevilacqua and
Justin Cord Hayes

18\. _The Words You Should Know To Sound Smart_ \- Robert W. Bly

19\. _The Dictionary of Difficult Words_ \- John Ayto

20\. _Rogets Thesaurus of Words For Intellectuals_ \- David Olsen, Michelle
Bevilacqua, and Justin Cord Hayes

21\. _The Thinker 's Thesaurus_ \- Peter E. Meltzer

22\. _Fiske Word Power_ \- Fiske, Mallison, Mandell

23\. _The Well Spoken Thesaurus_ \- Tom Heehler

24\. _They Have A Word For It_ \- Howard Rheingold

and remember, as Aldous Huxley said " _The proper study of mankind is books_
". And on that note, may I recommend keeping a couple of books of quotations
around. A good quote can be quite useful.

25\. _Mark My Words - Great Quotations and the Stories Behind Them_ \- Nigel
Rees

26\. _The Giant Book of American Quotations_ \- Carruth & Ehrlich

as for websites and blogs and what-not, there is a technical writing
subreddit:

[http://technicalwriting.reddit.com](http://technicalwriting.reddit.com)

and [https://writing.reddit.com](https://writing.reddit.com)

and

[https://writinghub.reddit.com](https://writinghub.reddit.com)

You also can't go wrong studying the essays of George Orwell

[http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/index_en](http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/index_en)

And I think that's about all I have to contribute, except to reiterate "write
a lot, read a lot".

Source: I have no particular distinction as a writer, but I have managed to
get a few articles published at InfoWorld:
[http://www.infoworld.com/author/Phil-
Rhodes/](http://www.infoworld.com/author/Phil-Rhodes/) and I've written quite
a few blog posts for my full-time employer, like: [http://mammothdata.com/big-
data-open-source-risk-managment/](http://mammothdata.com/big-data-open-source-
risk-managment/) and I have written most of the content on the Fogbeam company
blog: [http://fogbeam.blogspot.com](http://fogbeam.blogspot.com) I like to
think that if I keep reading and writing, I might actually acquire some skill
at it some day.

HTH, YMMV, IANAL, WTFBBQ, ETC.

~~~
soulbadguy
thanks ! i am going trough the amazon reviews to try to pick some of those
books. Do you have a top 5 for a beginner ?

~~~
mindcrime
1, 2, 6, 7 and 9 from the list above would probably be a good starting place.

