On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft (A Memoir of the Craft (Reissue))

The key to good description begins with clear seeing and ends with clear writing, the kind of writing that employs fresh images and simple vocabulary.

The word is only a representation of the meaning; even at its best, writing almost always falls short of full meaning.

In my view, stories and novels consist of three parts: narration, which moves the story from point A to point B and finally to point Z; description, which creates a sensory reality for the reader; and dialogue, which brings characters to life through their speech.

Description begins with visualization of what it is you want the reader to experience. It ends with your translating what you see in your mind into words on the page.

We are writers, and we never ask one another where we get our ideas; we know we don’t know.

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.

Remember that the basic rule of vocabulary is use the first word that comes to your mind, if it is appropriate and colorful.

Writing is refined thinking.

I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops.

I would argue that the paragraph, not the sentence, is the basic unit of writing—the place where coherence begins and words stand a chance of becoming more than mere words. If the moment of quickening is to come, it comes at the level of the paragraph.