Several Short Sentences About Writing

“How will I know when to stop revising?” You may not be able to tell yet whether your revisions are really improvements. So revise toward brevity—remove words instead of adding them. Toward directness—language that isn’t evasive or periphrastic. Toward simplicity—in construction and word choice. Toward clarity—a constant lookout for ambiguity. Towa

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

What do you notice? Whatever you notice. Behavior, thought, overheard words, light, resemblance, Emotion, totality, particularity, Whatever you find in the habitat of your perceptions, Anything, no matter how minute, Whether you’re working or reading or taking the subway. The pattern is particular to you, An element in what gets construed as “style

The point of learning the fundamental language of grammar and syntax Isn’t correctness or obeying the rules. It’s keeping the rules from obtruding themselves upon the reader Because you’ve ignored them.

You don’t have to write short sentences forever. Only until you find a compelling reason for a long sentence That’s as clear and direct as a short sentence. You’ll be tempted to say, “But short sentences sound so choppy.” Only a string of choppy sentences sounds choppy. Think about variation and rhythm, The rhythm created by two or three sentences

“Inspiration” is what gets you to the keyboard, And that’s where it leaves you.

It’s always worth asking yourself if you can imagine saying a sentence And adjusting it until you can. Just as it’s always useful to ask yourself, “What exactly am I trying to say?” The answer to that question is often the sentence you need to write down.

Proof is for mathematicians. Logic is for philosophers. We have testimony.

All writing is revision.