I love how the prompt itself illustrates the techniques it suggests for crafting vivid, distinctive prose. 👏 And the compact list of concrete writing practices is so useful! Thank you, Steven.
Here’s the item I’m going to focus on most today: paying “attention to the readers’ vantage point and the target of their gaze.” I’ll try to see it as a *joyful* challenge to imagine my way into others’ point of view in order to reach them there.
Also, one writer I’m really inspired by at the moment is Amy Liptrot, author of “The Outrun” and “The Instant”. She manages to combine writing about nature, love, online life, loneliness, heartbreak and joy in a way that is so fresh, clear and unsentimental, while at the same time being very authentic and meaningful. I can tend towards ‘flowery’ writing sometimes so she is such a valuable guide on how to avoid this and still create vivid sentences.
Her sharp eye and open heart allow her to source solace from the natural world, even in the middle of a big city: “The seconds when I see the hawks are brief but… I realise that the birds are often the best thing about my day. This is my time when job search, money worries and loneliness fall away. A swift sighting of the things I’ve set out to find gives me hope and leaves me on a high. Their silhouettes burn into my memory.”
Her way with words and images is also so evocative – here’s just one example, of a night she spent in the legendary Berghain nightclub in Berlin: “There is nothing to do but dive in. The dance floor is the seabed and I am scuba-diving. My heart beats in time with the music, which builds in layers shot through with chimes, like sonar from a submarine or whale song…”
This prompt reminds me of the film “Finding Forrester” where a reclusive author (played by Sean Connery) sets a scholarship student (played by Rob Brown) the task of copying and rewriting the author’s own work as a way to improve his writing skills. In another nod to emulating good work, I love the cover version by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” that plays over the credits at the end https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvVFh3xgx7Y . The film is definitely worth a watch – YouTube has it to rent.
Thanks, Pinker! Your writing makes me long for more and not just linger over it. A shoutout to Paul Bloom, Charles Kenny, and Lisa Wedeen, who also open up my appetite for prose.
Funnily enough, I did that in grad school with a published piece by my dissertation chair. I made the mistake of telling her that I figured out her writing pattern and copied it. EEEEK did I get a tongue lashing over that one! But the pronounced lack of red ink on that draft told a different story. Eventually she fired me and my new chair was a refreshing shift to actual mentoring.
"Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—wholeheartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press."
Obey your impulse to perpetuate fine writing by deleting it?! This doesn't even make sense. I guess in context they mean "exceptionally fine" to be a pejorative. But that still doesn't work. And what's with setting apart the adjective "wholeheartedly" by dashes. That's just weird. This sentence sucks.
The sarcastic tone of this quote from British writer Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch becomes clear in the final sentence: "Murder your darlings." Not a helpful sentiment, in my view! As Steve Pinker reminds us, learning to write well should be an exercise in "pleasurable mastery," not boot camp torture or authorial infanticide.
I love how the prompt itself illustrates the techniques it suggests for crafting vivid, distinctive prose. 👏 And the compact list of concrete writing practices is so useful! Thank you, Steven.
Here’s the item I’m going to focus on most today: paying “attention to the readers’ vantage point and the target of their gaze.” I’ll try to see it as a *joyful* challenge to imagine my way into others’ point of view in order to reach them there.
PS. Steven, your brilliant advice in _Sense of Style_ to reverse-engineer great writing gets a shout-out in Prompt 8! Reverse-engineering of our own Helen Sword’s writing is part of the Story-Argument model’s origin story: https://open.substack.com/pub/acwrimoments/p/day-8-trace-a-lineage?r=h6m6&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Thank you for all that you’ve done to support writers’ development! 🙏
An honour, Helen, and thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this delightful series.
Best,
Steve
Thank you, Steve, for this beautiful post. I plan to do lots of artful lingering today, like that gorgeous weaverbird crafting its nest.
Thanks, Sophie!
Best,
Steve
Thanks, Margy!
Best,
Steve
Thanks, Anne!
Also, one writer I’m really inspired by at the moment is Amy Liptrot, author of “The Outrun” and “The Instant”. She manages to combine writing about nature, love, online life, loneliness, heartbreak and joy in a way that is so fresh, clear and unsentimental, while at the same time being very authentic and meaningful. I can tend towards ‘flowery’ writing sometimes so she is such a valuable guide on how to avoid this and still create vivid sentences.
Her sharp eye and open heart allow her to source solace from the natural world, even in the middle of a big city: “The seconds when I see the hawks are brief but… I realise that the birds are often the best thing about my day. This is my time when job search, money worries and loneliness fall away. A swift sighting of the things I’ve set out to find gives me hope and leaves me on a high. Their silhouettes burn into my memory.”
Her way with words and images is also so evocative – here’s just one example, of a night she spent in the legendary Berghain nightclub in Berlin: “There is nothing to do but dive in. The dance floor is the seabed and I am scuba-diving. My heart beats in time with the music, which builds in layers shot through with chimes, like sonar from a submarine or whale song…”
Thanks for this, Anne, I will definitely check out Liptrot's writing.
Great, Helen! A trip to Berghain is on my bucket list...
Yes to 'a lifelong calling.' Yes to pleasurable practice, rather than the writing 'boot camp.' Thank you, Steven.
This prompt reminds me of the film “Finding Forrester” where a reclusive author (played by Sean Connery) sets a scholarship student (played by Rob Brown) the task of copying and rewriting the author’s own work as a way to improve his writing skills. In another nod to emulating good work, I love the cover version by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” that plays over the credits at the end https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvVFh3xgx7Y . The film is definitely worth a watch – YouTube has it to rent.
Thanks, Pinker! Your writing makes me long for more and not just linger over it. A shoutout to Paul Bloom, Charles Kenny, and Lisa Wedeen, who also open up my appetite for prose.
Funnily enough, I did that in grad school with a published piece by my dissertation chair. I made the mistake of telling her that I figured out her writing pattern and copied it. EEEEK did I get a tongue lashing over that one! But the pronounced lack of red ink on that draft told a different story. Eventually she fired me and my new chair was a refreshing shift to actual mentoring.
Academic battle scars! 🤕
"Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—wholeheartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press."
Obey your impulse to perpetuate fine writing by deleting it?! This doesn't even make sense. I guess in context they mean "exceptionally fine" to be a pejorative. But that still doesn't work. And what's with setting apart the adjective "wholeheartedly" by dashes. That's just weird. This sentence sucks.
The sarcastic tone of this quote from British writer Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch becomes clear in the final sentence: "Murder your darlings." Not a helpful sentiment, in my view! As Steve Pinker reminds us, learning to write well should be an exercise in "pleasurable mastery," not boot camp torture or authorial infanticide.