Writing
Emily Van Tassel and
Writing
I try to build up surprise, because surprise and insight and entertainment are all very tightly correlated. Surprise is also the fundamental axiom of Claude Shannon’s information theory. The more surprise in a message, the more information it contains.
Dan Shipper • How David Perell Writes an Essay
wisdom, on writing, from Rebecca Solnit
Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident.
Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time.
Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.
Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.
It’s impossible for a muddy thinker to write good English. He may get away with it for a paragraph or two, but soon the reader will be lost, and there’s no sin so grave…
On Writing Well, William Zinsser
I have learned so many things from music about writing. I think there are three important elements: rhythm, harmony, and free improvisation. I learned these things from music, not from literature. And when I started to write, I tried to write as though I were playing music.
Deborah Treisman • The Underground Worlds of Haruki Murakami
Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is.
I often find myself reading with interest about a topic I never thought would interest me... What holds me is the enthusiasm of the writer for his field.
How was he drawn into it? What emotional baggage did he bring along? How did it
If you can write, you’re not fixed. You can be anybody else—you have that possibility.