Style is an expression of the interest you take in the making of every sentence. It emerges, almost without intent, from your engagement with each sentence. It’s the discoveries you make in the making of the prose itself.

Learning to write begins anywhere, at any time in life.

Pursue clarity instead. In the pursuit of clarity, style reveals itself. Your clarity will differ from anyone else’s without your intending to make it differ. Years later, looking back over your collected works, You can contemplate your style at leisure. But for now you have more important things to think about.

Imagine it this way: One by one, each sentence takes the stage. It says the very thing it comes into existence to say. Then it leaves the stage. It doesn’t help the next one up or the previous one down. It doesn’t wave to its friends in the audience Or pause to be acknowledged or applauded. It doesn’t talk about what it’s saying. It simply says its

But what if you were to muster your own authority? I don’t mean making up facts and quotations. I mean, what if the reader trusted your prose, Listened with interest to what you’re saying For the sake of what you’re saying, Instead of noting the complacency, the deference, even the ceremony With which you bow to the authorities you cite? What if th

The premise of this book is that most of the received wisdom about how writing works is not only wrong but harmful. This is not an assumption. It’s a conclusion.

Many people assume there’s an inherent conflict between creativity and a critical, analytic awareness of the medium you work in. They assume that the creative artist works unconsciously And that knowing too much about matters like grammar and syntax diminishes or blunts creativity. This is nonsense. You don’t need to be an expert in grammar and syn

your mind never relinquishes what really matters.

“And then one day.” You know exactly how those four words feel. You know exactly what they do. When you get lost in your writing, remember them. Don’t use them: think about the possibilities they contain. The ability to gather and redirect, To rise above the level of the prose and look around, As if you were standing in a crow’s nest Looking out ov