The Elements of Style
I must start with a confession. I am not very good at picking up books and reading them. This is not good for one who wants to write. The problem, I feel, is due to an inability to concentrate rather than a weakness in my reading ability. Fairly or not I attribute the cause to many years skim reading technical books to extract information quickly rather than reading books for pleasure or deeper study.
This only partly explains why I had not started reading the book, The Elements of Style, before tonight. I received the book as a Christmas present a year ago.
Tonight I have read the Foreword and Introduction which I normally skip, but this is about changing my habits, and the first chapter, Elementary Rules of Usage. I felt comfortable with the style and pace of the first chapter. Some of the ‘rules’ have already had an influence on this piece of writing so I must have understood some of what I read. I am also sure I have broken some of the ‘rules’, but I aim to break fewer in the future.
Kev
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I will tell you what this is all about soon, I promise.
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I actually picked that book up for myself finally.
Hi, this is a really nice looking blog first of all, anyway:
I’m a writer too and I made this:
http://filmfiler.com/blog/nfblog/2006/03/3-act-structure/
which is basically a short presentation on the 3 act structure. So now, you don’t have to read fat books
Hi rav,
thanks for this, your blog looks very interesting will pop back soon.
Kev
At the [school] year-end formal dinner and dance for my college this past weekend the Professor giving the final address of the night spoke on Elements of Style. He cited various rules from memory and explained how each was an important piece of advice not only for writing well but for living well and getting the most out of life “after the humanities”.
Strunk and White present a quick and easy read that is, at times, as superflous as it is invaluble… Happy readings.
hey kev,
just curious why you want to write if you don’t read? i always thought the inspiration to write came from they enjoyment one gets from reading… that’s how it started in my case.
what medium are you trying to write for (books, television, etc.)? and what genre do you plan on specializing in?
Hi Duncan, that is an interesting question. I think my motivation to write is driven by an active imagination and wanting to explore themes that are interesting to me, which I hope in turn will be interesting to others. I do see it as a weakness that I don’t read enough and it may be the case that I actively tackle this soon, the original post here is now almost a year and a half old and my last post on this writing blog was in September last year so I am long over due to actually do something!
At the moment I have no plans to specialize. I have a couple of ideas in different genres that I think could become Novel length efforts. I think books initially would be my target if I am looking to make a paid career until then I will publish online.