Stephen King: Writing as “mental telepathy”

In On Writing, Stephen King explains what writing is.

Telepathy, of course. It’s amusing when you stop it think about it—for years people have argued about whether or not such a thing exists . . . and all the time  it’s been right there, lying out in the open like Mr. Poe’s Purloined Letter. All the arts depend upon telepathy to some degree, but I believe that writing offers the purest distillation.

WC&S is in the “Top 100 Blogs to Improve Your Writing in 2010”

Universitiesandcolleges.org has compiled a list of “100 blogs that will help you improve your writing by providing inspiration, motivation, creativity and new techniques from experts, freelancers, and editors from every genre,” and I’m pleased to say that Writing, Clear and Simple is included.

Go check it out. They’ve included a bunch of excellent resources. (I’m going to spend some time browsing the list myself.)

“Personal pet peeve”

I encountered another pleonasm—that is, the use of more words than needed to express an idea—the other day while listening to a podcast: “…my personal pet peeve…”

A pet peeve is, by definition, personal; there is no other kind of pet peeve.

I know, I know. I said that I’m less inclined to criticize someone for usage errors like this in daily speech. However, this podcast sounded like it was scripted, not extemporaneous. It was written out before it was delivered.

Question every word. Strike out every word that doesn’t add clarity or power.

Writing advice from Mark Twain

Richard Nordquist has collected a Top Ten list of Mark Twain’s writing tips.

My favorites:

Use the right word, not its second cousin.

And:

Use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English—it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in.

Pleonasms in the wild: “mutual cooperation”

I was watching a science program last week and one of the people being interviewed mentioned “mutual cooperation.”

“Mutual cooperation.” Can be any other kind of cooperation? Can there be unilateral cooperation?

“Mutual cooperation” is yet another example of a pleonasm; that is, using more words than necessary to express an idea. (For more on stamping out redundancy, see these posts: “Redundancies: Does it bear repeating?” and “Cutting unneeded words: pleonasms.”)

Granted, the phrase “mutual cooperation” was said in an extemporaneous discussion, and I’m not about to criticize someone for minor usage errors in their daily speech. Unrehearsed speech, such as conversation, is like a first draft. (And you know what I think of first drafts.) It can be messy, littered with (among other things) ums, ahs, you-knows, run-on sentences or sentence fragments, and yes, repetition.

If we’re not careful, redundancies—along with other usage and grammar errors—sneak from our speaking to our writing. “Write the way you speak” is common advice. And it’s good advice. But don’t forget to review what you write, or those sneaky little errors will make your writing less effective.