On Writing
Text editors and Lord of the Rings
I realized last week’s email had the wrong link. So here comes the corrected link. Enjoy :)
On Writing
The last few weeks have been quite hectic with all the writing that remains for the thesis. We submitted one paper last week. I am yet to write one more paper and complete my thesis within the next six weeks!
Every time the writing season comes around, I think about what makes writing good and how I can improve my writing.
Of all the different guides out there that talk about good writing, my favorite has been Steven King’s book, On Writing. This book is both a memoir into the Kings’ life and a guide into how to write well.
Here is a condensed version of King’s advice. His advice on “kill your darlings” has been the hardest for me to absorb fully. He says you need to write/rewrite your article 7 times before it is done. And, in each iteration, you shouldn’t be scared to throw away what you have previously written. On the face of it, this seems easy to do. But, it is not only that you throw away your text from your document, but also you must overcome the urge to rewrite it in the same way. And, instead, Write from a fresh perspective.
Branko has a really good article where he looks at how writing in newspapers has gone bad. He looks at some text from the New York times, a well-reputed paper, to make his point. He leverages the app Hemingway to help quantify what he really means.
Ultimately, writing must be simple. It is a means to convey your thoughts in the most refined way possible, and hence any complication takes you away from this goal.