Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very ’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
The old writer’s rule applies: Have the courage to write badly. Hard to know the shape of the thing until you have a draft. Get through a draft as quickly as possible. Prose is architecture, not interior decoration. All they do is show you’ve been to college. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. It’s one of the hardest things people do. If writing seems hard, it’s because it is hard. If you had a terminal disease would you finish this book? Why not? The thing that annoys this 10-weeks-to-live self is the thing that is wrong with the book.
When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong. Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time - or the tools - to write. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. George Orwellħ.There are three rules for writing a novel. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. Paul TherouxĤ.I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide. My advice to any young person who wants to write is: leave home. Notice how many of the Olympic athletes effusively thanked their mothers for their success? “She drove me to my practice at four in the morning,” etc.
Of course, #2 makes me laugh because law review writing is especially prone. And all this advice does generally translate to legal writing, including #22. I found a list of 22 pieces of advice from writers I admire which I gave the students as handouts - and which I might print out again this week. In preparation for what we'll be talking about, in addition to assigning them as always Eugene Volokh's Legal Academic Writing as a reference book, I pulled up some note files of mine which I had prepared for past years. They've all selected promising research topics and now they need to turn in first drafts (also per Hemingway: all first drafts are shitty). This week I am speaking to my students in my two writing seminars about good article writing. And I edit both drunk and sober - until something great floats to the surface (which is tricky because, well, shit floats, gold sinks, as we say in Hebrew). That's Hemingway and its the quote I've had on my office door for the past eight years.
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