Yeah, I do hint at the value of simplicity ("simple sentences and short words..."). I probably should've talked more about consistency. It's important both in terms of basic grammar (tense, person, etc) and higher-level flow.
Another good tip is to stay away from bullet points and numbered lists. They're overused in business writing and all too often serve as a way to clobber disjointed paragraphs together. Of course, I succumbed to the temptation in this particular post...
Agreed, thanks for sharing the additional points. I hasted to mention my 2 main take away's from the `on writing well` which you alluded to, but forgot to acknowledge the content of your article, which is great. Cheers.
Oh, that's a tough question. I don't think I'm picky enough to have favorites. To me, writing is utilitarian: it simply needs to be good enough not to get in the way. Beyond that, it's all about the story you want to tell. I never had qualms about reading pulp novels, and found them a lot more enjoyable than Dostoyevsky.
As far as fiction goes, I always had respect for Raymond Chandler; he had a way of saying a lot with relatively few words. Online, I think Matt Levine's finance column is a great example of witty utilitarian writing: he's great at explaining complex concepts in a digestible and humorous way.
The best exercise I can recommend is just writing about what you care about, and keep doing that a lot, trying to make every next doc better than the last. I've been practicing that for a long time. I'm not proud of my early writings, or even the stuff from a decade ago, but it doesn't matter much.
Also, another key trait - per the author of `On writing well` - simplicity and consistency
Yeah, I do hint at the value of simplicity ("simple sentences and short words..."). I probably should've talked more about consistency. It's important both in terms of basic grammar (tense, person, etc) and higher-level flow.
Another good tip is to stay away from bullet points and numbered lists. They're overused in business writing and all too often serve as a way to clobber disjointed paragraphs together. Of course, I succumbed to the temptation in this particular post...
Agreed, thanks for sharing the additional points. I hasted to mention my 2 main take away's from the `on writing well` which you alluded to, but forgot to acknowledge the content of your article, which is great. Cheers.
Oh, that's a tough question. I don't think I'm picky enough to have favorites. To me, writing is utilitarian: it simply needs to be good enough not to get in the way. Beyond that, it's all about the story you want to tell. I never had qualms about reading pulp novels, and found them a lot more enjoyable than Dostoyevsky.
As far as fiction goes, I always had respect for Raymond Chandler; he had a way of saying a lot with relatively few words. Online, I think Matt Levine's finance column is a great example of witty utilitarian writing: he's great at explaining complex concepts in a digestible and humorous way.
The best exercise I can recommend is just writing about what you care about, and keep doing that a lot, trying to make every next doc better than the last. I've been practicing that for a long time. I'm not proud of my early writings, or even the stuff from a decade ago, but it doesn't matter much.