

How to get better at writing - swombat
http://swombat.com/2010/12/6/get-better-at-writing

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jseliger
This reminds me of a post I wrote, "So you wanna be a writer: What Anthony
Bourdain can tell you even when he’s not talking about writing":
[http://jseliger.com/2010/09/20/so-you-wanna-be-a-writer-
what...](http://jseliger.com/2010/09/20/so-you-wanna-be-a-writer-what-anthony-
bourdain-can-tell-you-even-when-hes-not-talking-about-writing) . That's geared
toward people who want to be professional writers, though.

I would emphasize Tenner's "read a lot" and "write a lot" parts. You should
edit your own work, of course, but often you don't have the skills to do so
incredibly effectively until you've built up a lot of knowledge about what
works and what doesn't, which you won't be able to do until you've read a lot
and written a lot.

Also, if you read one or two books about writing, you'll be much better off. A
handful I consult regularly: 1) Write Right! (a simple, ~90 page book on
grammar and rules that will see you through 99% of situations); 2) How Fiction
Works, by James Wood (which is mostly about noticing what you read); 3) On
Writing Well by William Zissner (a perennial recommendation); 4) On Writing by
Steven King (which is so fun to read that it's hard _not_ to recommend).

~~~
achompas
I'll add "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White. Some people don't like
it, but I love it's "reference book" nature. Open to any random page and learn
something new, or check the table of contents when you're not sure about
something.

~~~
pmichaud
A lot of it is pretty backward and antiquated though. Take its contents with a
grain of salt.

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sp4rki
This advice is not only for people wanting to get better at writing, it's more
a general advice for improving anything. The best way to get better at
programming is to program, to read about programming, and to practice new
things while programming. Want to get better at throwing a football? Practice
throwing a football, read articles on the best and proper techniques on
throwing a football, and practice different variations of the techniques to
find which one suits you.

I'd think this sort of advice is obvious, but lots of times one
overcomplicates the learning process because of a need to make it easier to
learn. This type of articles are needed to answer the main question every
beginner (and even some advanced people) has at some time during the learning
process: How do I get better?

By practicing. We often forget that it's that simple.

------
SlyShy
Another suggestion is removing waste words.

"If you look for them, you can find millions of occasion to write. Join almost
any active online community and you will have many chances a day to write
about whatever it is you have an opinion about. An active business will
generate countless emails, each of which is an opportunity to write. And, of
course, there are more traditional options, like blogging or otherwise writing
for an audience."

"You can find a million occasions to write. Join an active community and you
can write about anything. An active business generates countless emails, each
an opportunity to write. There are also traditional options, like blogging or
otherwise writing for an audience."

Phrases like "almost any" only work to weaken your claim. I know that this
weakening is purposeful (I used to shy away from overly strong statements
too), but the reader is already automatically weakening any statements you
make, and doesn't need any help.

~~~
swombat
It's not really another suggestion, since it is really the essential point of
"Does it have a point? Is the point clear? Could it be more concise? Could it
be cut entirely?", but yes, absolutely right.

I'll hasten to add that I am by no means a perfect writer. As I said, writing
can _always_ be improved.

That said, I do take exception to getting rid of, for example, "of which is".
You might call those waste words, and that's your right, but I think that
without them the phrase's rhythm is dry and unfriendly.

~~~
InclinedPlane
A particular pet peeve of mine is the use of "really", which is often
extraneous and just as often dulls the writing.

Consider: _"It's not another suggestion, since it is the essential point
of..."_

~~~
swombat
Sure. And, like "to be honest" and other expressions of that kind, the
"really" serves a purpose: it softens the sentence, making it less
confrontational.The surest way to dull, boring writing is to take out every
bit of warmth and replace it with rigid application of pseudo-grammatical
rules. Sentences should be as concise as possible - but not more.

------
rjett
There have been a lot of good posts about writing on HN in the past month.
Inspired by <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1851957> and
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1851526>, I decided to try to write my
own screenplay a few weeks back since I had never written in this style
before. I found it to be an interesting exercise and it really helped me think
through character and plot a lot more than I ever have with other types of
writing. Given my experience writing this screenplay in the last month, I
might also add to the list of swombat's [excellent] suggestions that you
should practice writing different styles, whether it's poetry, screenplays,
research papers, short stories, etc. Each one of these require different skill
sets. I'd also add that just as reading a lot helps you write, the converse is
true too. Writing regularly enriches your reading experiences.

If anyone's interested, I wrote a screenplay for South Park, partly to see
what it was like to write a screenplay and partly to see if I could use SEO
instead of the traditional process to get a screenplay picked up by a major
network. Here's it is: <http://www.scribd.com/doc/44671533/Underground-South-
Park>. I was thinking of hosting it on posterous or making a small wordpress
site to put it up and see if I could drive people to it that way. Suggestions
and advice welcome!

~~~
zacharycohn
Is this post part of your SEO strategy? :)

~~~
rjett
Not really... I just finished writing a couple days ago and this seemed like a
good opportunity to mention it. I don't have a site yet, and I'm not much of
an SEO buff, so I really just wanted to get some ideas from those in the
community more versed in the matter.

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jdp23
Excellent suggestions: practice often, review what you've written thoroughly,
and expose yourself to great writing.

One other thing I'd add is to continually seek out feedback on your writing
from different people. Blogging or journalling are great ways to do this. A
lot of people have told me that my writing's improved a lot over the last
three years, and it's really interesting to compare-and-contrast my current
blog posts from the ones when I was just getting started.

've been amazed at how much

------
bap
One thing I don't commonly see mentioned in these types of articles/posts/etc
is something I've been doing for quite some time as an avid reader.

Often I will run across a phrase, or a sentence or sometimes a paragraph, that
just feels awkward to me. I can't help but read it two or three times trying
to find the not-awkward way of 'hearing' it.

When I encounter these I tend to type out the text that doesn't jive with me
and then rewrite it twice:

1.) in a way that comfortably flows with the context I found it in (I call
this exploring another writers voice.)

2.) and re-interpreting it in my own 'style.'

Never do I publish the results of this exercise. Aside from the obvious
benefits of the two points above, doing this just helps me get the damned
chunk of prose out of my head so I can move on with my life.

Does anyone else have any quick and dirty, improving your writing in the wild
techniques?

