Tuesday, July 27, 2010

How To Write More Gooder



In my continuing attempt to educate and enlighten you, my peeps, I found this awesome article at Christine’s place, here, and though you writers out there could use the advice. You’re welcome!

HOW TO WRITE GOOD
by Frank L. Visco

My several years in the word game have learnt me several rules:

Avoid alliteration. Always.

Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat.)

Employ the vernacular.

Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.

It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.

Contractions aren't necessary.

Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.

One should never generalize.

Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."

Comparisons are as bad as cliches.

Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.

Profanity sucks.

Be more or less specific.

Understatement is always best.

Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

One-word sentences? Eliminate.

Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

The passive voice is to be avoided.

Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.

Who needs rhetorical questions?

Now, peeps, go forth and do gooder writing.
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13 comments:

Miss Em said...

Jeesh. Now I am in trouble. There goes my words for that new posting I was going to put out about "plumber's cracks".

Thanks a pant-load.

Miss Em

;-)

Lickety Splitter said...

LOL ... love em, but baby don't play by the rules! I think some of my writing comes from the exact place that Elizabeth Gilbert discusses in her TED talk which I posted in yesterday's blog(Running with Scissors) ... go back and check that out when you have time, it was a TED crowd pleaser. I love the idea of stories, poems or lyrics ... chasing us down ;)

Tracie said...

You done good with that won.

Liz Mays said...

I love it. I also totally enjoy breaking rules so I aim to break all of those every day if possible.

Mala said...

excellent advise! I feel like a gooder writer already!

Weezer said...

You old fool! Don't you know it's ' "more betterer"...How to Write More Betterer"

I never know what to expect here. I like that.

ScoMan said...

Look out for some of these tips being employed on my blog. Soon.

Who can wait?

Unknown said...

love it!
Happy Wednesday!
~AM

Barb said...

LOL. The writer in today's paper should have seen your advice. Instead of "She ran over him twice.", he wrote, "She ran over him once. Then she ran over him a second time."

Wrexie said...

Could you be more or less specific? Afterall, one should never generalize.

I goed forth to do gooder writing, but I stepped in some colloquialisms when I went around the barn at high noon trying to avoid a passive voice (and some parenthetical remarks coming from the loft.)
Profanity sucks.

Momma Fargo said...

This was your goodest post.

Sojack.blogspot.com said...

Wow! I might as well quit writing all together. I'm guilty of almost all those rules.

gayle said...

Glad I stopped on by and set a spell!!