{"id":2879,"date":"2015-12-09T23:46:26","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T06:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dresan.com\/blog\/?p=2879"},"modified":"2017-04-08T20:59:06","modified_gmt":"2017-04-09T03:59:06","slug":"how-to-be-a-better-writer-the-short-version","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/09\/how-to-be-a-better-writer-the-short-version\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Be a Better Writer (the Short Version)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"20151207_002854.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Recently a colleague asked me if I had any advice on being a better writer. I thought I\u2019d posted about that, but it appears that I hadn\u2019t, so I tried writing up my thoughts. That was too much, so I summarized. That was too much, so I summarized it AGAIN. And then it was short enough to share with you:<\/p>\n

\n

The super short version is to be a better writer, just write!<\/b><\/p>\n

I often recommend morning pages – writing three pages about random topics at the start of your day, even “bla bla bla” if you have to – you’ll get tired of writing \u201cbla bla bla” quickly, and this will help cure you of the feeling you need to wait for your muse.<\/p>\n

This advice comes from the book The Artist’s Way<\/i>, which is a great course to take; I also recommend Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style<\/i> and Brooks Landon’s Building Great Sentences<\/i> on grammar and style, Ayn Rand’s The Art of Fiction<\/i> and The Art of Nonfiction<\/i> on writing and structure, and The Elements of Editing<\/i> and Self-Editing for Fiction Writers<\/i> on editing.<\/p>\n

I also recommend that you read a lot more than you write, especially writing of the kind you want to emulate; take a look at it and see what makes it tick.<\/p>\n

For fiction and other similar writing I recommend finding a writing group first, not a critique group; there are several good ones in the Bay Area including Write to the End<\/i> and Shut Up and Write<\/i>.<\/p>\n

For the kind of internal communications you’re talking about, you might try looking at marketing and documentation literature or the great writers internally that you admire – also popular writers, technical and nontechnical, in the computer field.<\/p>\n

As for blogging, my recommendation is to just blog – try to do it regularly, at least once a week or so, about whatever comes to your mind, so that you create both a growing store of content – and again, a habit that helps you just write.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n\"20151207_002839.jpg\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll try to expand on these recommendations, but if I had to boil it down even further, I\u2019d say: just write!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

-the Centaur<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently a colleague asked me if I had any advice on being a better writer. I thought I\u2019d posted about that, but it appears that I hadn\u2019t, so I tried…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[205,1,202],"tags":[4,20,5,89],"class_list":["post-2879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-groups","category-uncategorized","category-writing","tag-dragon-writers","tag-philosophy","tag-we-call-it-living","tag-write-to-the-end","ratio-2-1","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2879"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3828,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2879\/revisions\/3828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}