WRITING

'Writing is about hynotising yourself into believing in yourself, getting some work done, then unhypnotizing yourself and going over the material coldly.'

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, p.114.

WRITING

'Writing is about learning to pay attention and to communicate what is going on.'

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, p.97.

USING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

'1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.

3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

6. Break any of these rules sooner than saying anything outright barbarous.'

George Orwell, 'Politics and the Englsih Langauage'. Available at: www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit

CHILDHOOD

'Writers are formed by their childhoods, by places which have given up their inner meaning, by people glimpsed, and above all by emotions both felt and observed.'
Susan Hill, Howards End is on the Landing, p.142.

GOOD WRITING

'The point about every single book that I re-read in order to laugh is that every one is so much more funny because the authors write so well. Wodehouse uses the English language to perfection, Durrell evokes scenes so wonderfully, Nancy Mitford's prose is so elegant, so arch. One could learn to write from any of them and I wish more people would. No matter what the genre, good writing always tells. Crime novels? Look at Raymond Chandler, master of style. Spy novels? How many do you know who write as well as le Carre? Style wins every, every time.'
Susan Hill, Howards End is on the Landing, p.57.

WRITING A COLUMN

'The opening needs to work immediately: it should affront readers, or make them laugh, or puzzle them in some engaging way. I rarely re-write, but often go back to the first few sentences time and again. The ending may well pick up on the opening image or thought. You should "bite the tail": it gives a satisfying sense of completeness.'

Andrew Marr, My Trade, p.374.

LETTERS

'For some reason I have never lost faith, not since I was a young child, in the power of letters to transform my existence. The mere sight of an envelope on my doormat can still flood me with anticipation, however transitory. Brown envelopes rarely do this, it has to be said; window envelopes, never. But then there is the white, handwritten envelope, that glorious rectangle of pure possibility...'

Jonathan Coe, What a carve up! p.155.

ADJECTIVES

'... Adjectives which are a direct command to the reader to feel a certain emotion are no use. In vain we tell him that a thing was horrible, beautiful or mysterious. We must so present it that he exclaims horrible! beautiful! or mysterious!'

CS Lewis in Walter Hooper (Ed.), The Collected Letters of CS Lewis Vol III, p.344.