Rich Lowry, writer and magazine editor, gave a talk recently about "writing to be read". Some thoughts, digested from excellent notes taken by a colleague:

• Writing is hard!
• Everyone is insecure about his or her writing.
• Deadlines are your friend: they force you to finish a project so you can move on.
• Getting started is the hardest step. Once you have the first paragraph, though, you essentially have the piece.
• Writing is thinking. You need to know what you are trying to say.
• Writing takes time. Products will be better if you build in time for review.
• Everything you write will be too long. That's OK; write long, set the work aside, and then pare down. Inexperienced writers in particular should plan to write long initially.
• Use concrete examples: show, don't tell.
• Avoid clichés. Study the work of a good writer and learn the rhythm of that person's language.
• Make the lead crisp.
• The best writers pay attention to the suggestions of their editors.
• Everything is interesting if you think about it long enough!

(many thanks to Jane F. for sharing her splendid notes from this talk! cf. HowToWrite (28 Nov 2000), ...)

TopicWriting - 2007-10-24

(correlates: SpasmodicHercules, ObitCode, FecklessPerson, ...)