April is...

brain-food:

On June 26, 1956, author C.S. Lewis responded to a fan letter from Joan Lancaster, a young Chronicles of Narnia enthusiast.

In a personalized thank-you letter, the writer imparted some simple and valuable stylistic advice for budding prose writers. 

1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.

2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.

3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose.”

4. In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please will you do my job for me.”

5. Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

You can read the rest of the letter @ Letters of Notes

  1. reverserae reblogged this from acreativejourney
  2. evelynl88 reblogged this from 52hearts
  3. turtlekimmi reblogged this from aoide-melete
  4. aoide-melete reblogged this from graciousportofships
  5. underwaterumbrellas reblogged this from graciousportofships
  6. cowbellesandcombatboots reblogged this from graciousportofships
  7. graciousportofships reblogged this from welaughjustalittletooloud
  8. welaughjustalittletooloud reblogged this from galloping-gallifreyan
  9. burnbrae reblogged this from encourageous
  10. thehendersonswillallbethere reblogged this from the-masked-writer
  11. pagesfullofstars reblogged this from theitchofliterature
  12. my-hair-is-too-long reblogged this from bloodycaliborn
  13. breezingthroughlife16 reblogged this from xkiasai
  14. xkiasai reblogged this from strider-bound
  15. globular-clusterfuck reblogged this from shslartificialintelligence
  16. strider-bound reblogged this from bloodycaliborn
  17. yunilao reblogged this from shslartificialintelligence
  18. trambone99 reblogged this from shslartificialintelligence
  19. shslartificialintelligence reblogged this from bloodycaliborn
  20. bloodycaliborn reblogged this from devil-fucking-dickens
  21. fuckyeahhdepomps reblogged this from samthelocker
  22. msallybrookehernandez reblogged this from abgron
  23. markiemarkwrites reblogged this from theitchofliterature
  24. litmusing reblogged this from theitchofliterature