Several Short Sentences About Writing

To make short sentences, you need to remove every unnecessary word. Your idea of necessary will change as your experience changes. The fact that you’ve included a word in the sentence you’re making Says nothing about its necessity. See which words the sentence can live without, No matter how inconspicuous they are. Every word is optional until it p

Concentration, attention, excitement, will be part of your working state. Daily. Flow, inspiration—the spontaneous emission of sentences—will not. That distinction is worth keeping in mind.

Every sentence is entitled to structural freedom.

There’s always an urge among writers To turn fleeting observations and momentary glimpses Into metaphors and “material” as quickly as possible, As if every perception ended in a trope, As if the writer were a dynamo Turning the world into words. The goal is the opposite: To get your words, your phrases, As close as you can to the solidity, The mate

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.

No one will teach you how to wait while you think or what to wait for while you’re thinking. You’ll have to teach yourself. Above all, you’ll have to teach yourself to be patient.

Revise at the point of composition. Compose at the point of revision. Accept no provisional sentences. Make no drafts And no draft sentences. Bring the sentence you’re working on as close to its final state as you can Before you write it down and after. Do the same for the next sentence And right on through to the end. Think of composition and revi

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

All writing is revision.