
Ask HN: How do I teach myself better writing skills? - klbarry
I am a decent enough writer, but considering how important writing is in almost all online work, I'm highly interested in improving further. I'm currently in college but I don't feel my English classes give me an significant improvements. What websites or programs do you recommend to learn how to craft really engaging stuff?
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markstansbury
Read. Read. Read. Then read some more. If you want to write for a modern
audience then read as many great works of fiction from the last 50 or 100
years as you can. Read the non-fiction too. Read great essays. Read The New
Yorker. Then try this...

You know how when you go to an art museum you always see art students sitting
around sketching some great masterpiece? Do that. When you read a great
passage--or hell just open up something by a great author and pick a page--
copy it down, word for word, and pay attention while you do it. Now go back
through with a different color pen and break it down. How long are the
sentences? Does their length vary? How? What letter starts each sentence? Is
there alliteration? How is it stressed? And so on.

Reading will give you the tools, but like Alex said, you've got to write to
get good at writing. Here's what I suggest. Either blog or write a journal
every day. Then make it a habit to go back to things you've written (blog or
work stuff, whatever) and review it, then revise it. Do that about one or two
weeks after you've written it so you have fresh eyes. You'll start to pick up
on your common mistakes and learn to correct and avoid them.

Above all else, a great writer must develop empathy for the reader. Become
sensitive to every miscue or ambiguity in your writing. Empathize with the
reader. Learn to express yourself simply and clearly.

~~~
chromatic
Do this, and also read what you write aloud. Pay attention to repetition, to
unclear thinking, to confused writing, and to anything else which distracts
from your point.

~~~
andrewce
I have my students do this, from middle-schoolers who are just learning the
language to high-schoolers in advanced placement English classes. Reading your
own writing aloud works wonders, so long as you're willing to edit mercilessly
while reading aloud.

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jwr
1\. Practice makes perfect. Yes, others are right in telling you to read a
lot, but reading alone won't improve your writing much. You have to write and
more importantly, edit what you wrote. Write a blog post, wait a day or so,
and edit it — make it as short as you possibly can without losing the message.

2\. I found the Economist Style Guide
(<http://www.economist.com/research/styleguide/>) to be quite helpful. Strunk
& White is useful, but not as a set of rules to abide by, but as a set of
ideas to consider.

~~~
markstansbury
I really like your point about making it as short as possible.
Short=dense=clear.

As an attorney I'm always running up against court-imposed page limits.
Nothing clarifies an argument quite like having to cut it in half.

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AlexBlom
Honestly, blog, blog and blog. After leaving school my writing went to crap.
When I started blogging I was shocked at how bad my published materials
sounded. Now that I'm blogging 2-3 times per week it has in all honesty
refined me a tonne.

Practice makes perfect.

~~~
ScottWhigham
I have to say that, while this makes sense on one level ("Practice makes
perfect"), on another level it is dangerous. Let's say you have horrible
grammar, bad ideas, and poor planning. Is it a good idea to plaster your blog
posts on the internet? No.

As someone else said, "Read, read, read" is a guaranteed winner. Also reading
books on how to become a better writer will help.

There's definitely a minimal level of skill needed before you start "Writing,
writing, writing".

~~~
xiongchiamiov
> Let's say you have horrible grammar, bad ideas, and poor planning. Is it a
> good idea to plaster your blog posts on the internet? No.

Why not? The internet is full of pedants who will gleefully correct you.

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Eliezer
Write write write write write write.

You have to write one million words to throw away before you can write
anything good. Yes, one million. Start now.

I recommend choosing something that lets you publish small bites of work as
you finish them, and get them actually read and commented on by someone. Like
a blog. Or posting chapters to a fanfiction site.

Write write write write write.

~~~
CyberFonic
AND .... get lots of impartial feedback!

Without constructive criticism you won't know what you are doing right and
what needs changing.

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mrpsbrk
More than anything, i would say: read. Reading good stuff will subliminally
creep into what you write (also known as the secret to originality is bad
memory). There is simply no time available to read the books that are so good
that you shouldn't consider yourself a complete human being before reading
them, which basically means: Do not read anything that is not very good. Like
stellar good. Also, sharpen your thoughts: Words can set you free if you know
that it is not the words themselves, but how you use them.

But, really, blogging helped me a lot too ;-)

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RyanMcGreal
Write a lot, as other commenters have recommended; but go beyond that and have
skilled writers critique your writing. Good writing is good in large part
because it avoids poor techniques. A competent editor can point out the
passages in which your own writing goes awry so that you can cut them out or
otherwise reform them.

It may seem backwards to suggest that good writing amounts mostly to writing
with the bad stuff _subtracted_ ; but in my experience the inverse idea - that
good writing amounts mostly to writing with good stuff _added_ \- leads to an
overreliance on tricks and contrivances, i.e. preciousness.

There's maybe one writer in a thousand with the talent to succeed at
preciousness. (Margaret Atwood comes to mind; I tend to read her books with a
dictionary close at hand.) For the rest of us, the straightest path to good
writing is to stop trying so hard and just aim for good structure, clarity and
brevity.

That means you need to develop a thick skin, by which I mean a willingness to
let go of the stuff that doesn't work. Few contemporary critics would regard
Stephen King as a literary giant, but he clearly knows how to get the words
onto the paper and into the hands of readers. His most salient writing advice?
"Kill your darlings."

~~~
andrewce
The best editor is one who is insightful, constructive, and absolutely
merciless toward your writing.

Your responsibility as a writer is to your reader; give them the clearest and
most direct path to follow that you can (via the most accessible language you
can wrangle) and then populate that path with compelling people, scenes, and
ideas.

No one (except Faulkner) criticizes Hemingway on the basis of "his sentences
are too short".

------
giu
Disclaimer: I'm an Italian guy living in Switzerland since ever :)

\----

Read a lot, but more importantly, write a lot.

90 % of the things I read online or offline are written in the English
language.

I blog in my free time, and I once was at your position, too, so I decided
start to write all the posts in English. It helps. Really. Try to write as
much as possible in English.

I'm benefiting a lot from both these facts. Read as much as possible in
English; get your daily news from the NY Times, read technical blogs written
in English, etc. Try to write as much as possible. Keep a diary in English;
try to answer questions over at StackOverflow; try to comment on articles
posted here on HN.

You should also adjust your environment to support you with learning the
language. For example, I've installed Lauchy (<http://launchy.net>) and I've
set up a shortcut to <http://dict.cc>; I launch Launchy, type in _d myword_
and get an English translation of _myword_. I'm pretty productive thanks to
this little shortcut, and I'm constantly learning new words.

------
LloydPren
Read good writers in your field of interest.

1) Outline their works to see how they build logical structure/argument \--
See how they introduce key points in the structure/argument \-- See how they
support key assertions with facts or examples \-- See how they exploit the
"ladder of abstraction." When they make an abstract assertion or point, do
they back it up with specific examples or concrete evidence?

2) Identify the "elevator statement;" e.g. major thematic assertion of the
work. If you can write it down on the back of a business card, you're on the
right track \-- Study how they introduce the theme \-- Study how the develop
it \-- Study how consistently the stick with it \-- Study how they reach a
conclusion that hammers the theme home

3) Study how they construct paragraphs \-- See how they transition into a
paragraphs \-- See how they set up and establish the main point of the
paragraph \-- See how they stick to that point within the paragraph \-- See
how they set up for the next paragraph (transitions of thought)

4) Study how they construct sentences \-- See how they use concrete vs.
abstract nouns \-- See how they use active vs. passive verbs \-- See how they
use (or avoid) adjectives and adverbs \-- See how they make every word count
\-- See how the vary sentence rhythm across simple, compound, and complex
structrues.

5) Study how they relate to the reader \-- Study the voice (formal vs.
intimate, etc.) \-- Study the tone (friendly, angry, ironic, etc.)

6) Master spelling, punctuation, and grammar

7) Lean about different conventional "formats" -- e.g. essay, opinion piece,
news story, report, thesis, etc. \-- How do they differ? \-- What are
essential elements of each?

8) Write for specific readers \-- What does your readers expect?

9) Follow the "yeah, yeah, oh!" pattern. E.g. Introduce a thought (yeah),
introduce a logically connected thought (yeah), throw in a surprising image or
twist of thought (oh!)

10) Tell the truth, but tell it slant (e.g. avoid cliches and dull, worn-out
language; keep it fresh..

------
dirceut
I've always wanted to get better at writing in english (my first language is
portuguese). Unfortunately I'm too perfectionist to post things to my public
blog regularly, so a private journal is a good alternative.

Try to build a habit, it helps a lot. I write (almost) every day, first thing
in the morning, on a full screen terminal window with Emacs. I write whatever
I want and then copy it to my Dropbox folder.

Before starting my writing habit I was spending a lot of time reading posts
like "11 ways to write good headlines", "33 tips to better writing" and "10
ways to foster your creativity". Much more time than writing, actually. FAIL.

So, don't look for websites or programs; practice more. Read good books and
analyse them.

------
danilocampos
Good writing – good anything, really – comes with practice. You'll also need
inspiration, though, because there are many different flavors of good writing.

Find an author whose voice you respect and devour their work. Understand what
it is you like about how they communicate, and experiment with it in your own
work. Don't crib their style wholesale, obviously, but have a high water mark
or two that can inspire you.

Grab a WordPress install, get out a post every n days, then see how you feel
in a few months. Writing is important most of all for forcing you to
understand and defend your ideas. Getting into the habit now is a good idea.

------
filosofo
Read "Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace" by Joseph Williams.

It is not one of those books like Strunk and White's that teaches you a set of
arbitrary rules.

Rather, the author defines a set of general principles. Then he develops and
illustrates those principles with good and bad examples. And talks about the
exceptions to those principles.

Much of what separates really good writing from merely correct writing seems
ineffable; it sounds the right note. Williams makes many of those seemingly
indescribable qualities identifiable, so you can then recognize them in
others' writing and learn to build them into your own.

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mattgratt
I'm doing a correspondence course in copywriting called "the Accelerated
Program for Six-Figure Copywriting."
(<http://www.awaionline.com/copywriting/>)

While it's simply unrealistic to get paid six figures for copywriting, it's
helped make my writing much simpler and much easier to read.

Additionally, this sounds like stupid advice, but copy (by hand) writing you
like. You'll learn (both consciously and subconsciously) what the writer is
doing.

~~~
maxawaytoolong
_this sounds like stupid advice, but copy (by hand) writing you like_

Somerset Maugham did this, and he was the highest paid author of his time.

~~~
edge17
I think Ben Franklin did it too. He'd copy one paragraph of a writer whose
style he like, and then try to write the following paragraph himself.

------
d_r
I highly recommend grabbing "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser.

Beyond that, write as much as you can, and read your writing immediately or
later. Is the point you're making as clear to the reader as it is to you? Are
you using extra words that don't add to the content?

I find myself even revising my long e-mails, with the final result being more
succinct and easier to understand.

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more_original
Practise! But others have said that already.

I'd like to add that George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language"
makes a few good points that may help improve your writing:
[http://wikilivres.info/wiki/Politics_and_the_English_Languag...](http://wikilivres.info/wiki/Politics_and_the_English_Language)

------
SteveMorin
I think the book suggestions are great. But if you read enough about learning
theory you need enough feed back. If you have a following ask your reader for
feed back regularly to improve your writing.

------
pramit
The Success Manual <http://thesuccessmanual.bighow.com> Has summaries from
useful writing books, experts and great writers as well.

------
chanux
Check this too. Found on HN. [http://www.theamericanscholar.org/writing-
english-as-a-secon...](http://www.theamericanscholar.org/writing-english-as-a-
second-language/)

------
woid
A general rule: learn anything by doing it while following people who are
doing it well.

------
andrewstuart
Read "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White

~~~
GiraffeNecktie
Ech. If you want to improve your writing, please do NOT read Strunk and White.
It might make you feel better that you are following what are supposedly "the
rules" but your actual writing will not improve.
[http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/happy-
birt...](http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/happy-birthday-
strunk-and-white/)

~~~
markstansbury
Hah. I don't know ...

I mean, they Strunk & White don't know what the passive voice is. I wouldn't
use them as a grammar guide. But they're both solid writers and their tips are
--most of the time--quite wise. Of course, you run the risk of sounding like
New Yorker fiction...

------
xiongchiamiov
Read. Write.

~~~
fezzl
Exactly what I was going to say. Read for learning, write for practice.

Continual learning and practice = Mastery

------
HilbertSpace
My usual advice:

Start with three books:

(1) The most thorough book on English grammar you can find.

(2) A relatively complete dictionary of English.

(3) Strunk and White, _The Elements of Style_.

Then

(1) Write, about nearly anything for nearly any purpose, and think about what
you would like to do better.

(2) Read some relatively good writing and see if by example it provides some
good answers the questions you had in (1).

Then rinse. Repeat. Many times.

My evidence is that good progress takes years: When I was a college prof I
noticed that the much older evening students were much less good students
except for term papers where they were MUCH better. Net, learning to write
well takes time.

For some good writing, in math read Paul Halmos. In science, read a good
freshman physics book. These examples are high among the best ever at
communicating rock solid information with some of the greatest clarity yet
achieved and are crown jewels of civilizations.

For _persuasive_ writing, practice on, say, Reddit or other fora and see what
reactions you get. Rinse. Repeat. Many times.

For writing for the _humanities_ , mostly just learn about humans. For this
purpose, my favorite _Humans 101 for Dummies_ is the now classic E. Fromm,
_The Art of Loving_.

Then for Beowulf and Chaucer through Milton, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Byron,
Shelley, Keats, Dickens, and Henry James to the present and for the rest of
this millennium in English literature, and its history, techniques, values,
and goals, I would treat it as at best meaningless and otherwise as toxic
waste of great danger to humans, this far into the 21st century still stuck
before the 18th. Here I am straining as hard as I can to be astoundingly
diplomatic and omit remarks about detritus of the ascent of man, effluent, and
septic tank of civilization.

Actually in England in the 1600s there was a good writer, Newton.

