An eNewsletter Dedicated to Helping Business people Write Smarter and Faster in Plain Language
Timeless Writing Tips from Mark Twain
Here are 12 writing tips that Mark Twain offered other writers in his lifetime. They still hold true today.
- “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. Here, Twain offers some advice that can help writers young and old learn to express themselves more clearly. By eliminating unnecessary words, you’ll make your writing more precise and ultimately more effective, even if today we don’t find damn as objectionable as they did in Twain’s time.
- “Write without pay until somebody offers to pay.” If you’re going to be a writer, your reason for wanting to be a writer should always be because you love it. If you’re in it for the money you might wind up sorely disappointed.
- “The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is that you really want to say.” As a writer, you won’t have too many times in your life when the first draft of your story will be the one you ultimately end up going with. As Twain suggests here, the first draft is merely a chance to get your ideas on paper, after which you can really begin crafting a clear, well-organized and intelligent story.
- “Anybody can have ideas—the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.” Why say something in a page that you can say in a sentence? Economy of words is still considered a value in writing today, and was a value that Twain often espoused. If you can’t yet limit yourself to a few words, work at it. The best writers can say a whole lot with very little.
- “It was by accident that I found out that a book is pretty sure to get tired along about the middle and refuse to go on with its work until its powers and its interest should have been refreshed by a rest and its depleted stock of raw materials reinforced by lapse of time.” As in many creative fields, writers are subject to bouts of writer’s block and burnout. The cure? Twain offers it here: a break. Sometimes taking a break from a project, for a few hours or a few months, will let you return to it with more ideas and a fresh perspective. Twain often left books for years at a time only to return to them later, or sometimes, never again.
- “Great books are weighed and measured by their style and matter, and not the trimmings and shadings of their grammar.” While an understanding of grammar is surely an important asset to have as a writer, good grammar doesn’t make a good story. Focus more on your ideas, style, and story, and hammer out the details of grammar later.
- “As to the Adjective: when in doubt, strike it out.” Twain felt there was no virtue in overly flowery, descriptive prose. While everyone has a unique style, using more adjectives than necessary likely won’t improve the quality of the story. Quality over quantity should always be the rule when it comes to writing.
- “I notice that you 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.” While not everyone believes this is the best style, and many writers have had successful careers with fluff and flowers, in general, being clear, concise and to the point in your writing is the best route. If your writing becomes too superfluous or showy, you may bore readers and distract from the point of your story.
- “Don’t say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream.” Here, Twain is asking writers to do something fairly straightforward but sometimes difficult to accomplish. You don’t need to tell your story as though you were not there, it will distance your readers. Instead, describe a scene as if it were happening right in front of you. It will make your writing far more interesting.
- “I don’t give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.” While Twain might have seemed the type to shy away from such indulgences as creative spellings, here he encourages writers to play with language. After all, many words in the English language came from writers like Shakespeare who simply made them up. Grammar and spelling are fine, but don’t be afraid to have a little fun with the language as well.
- “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” While this might be a bit of an extreme example, choosing the right words for what you mean in a piece of writing is essential. One word might be a synonym for another, but it doesn’t mean the two have exactly the same meaning or connotation. Spend some time working on your language to make sure each word is just right for where you’ve placed it.
- “The more you explain it, the more I don’t understand it.” Here, again, Twain presses for writers to be more clear, concise and brief when writing. You could write pages and pages on something and have it be more obtuse than one, simple, clearly written paragraph. If you’re struggling, start with the long version and figure out just what you can omit or change without changing the point.
Fun Facts
- Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day.
- A red poppy is the flower associated with Memorial Day because in the spring, it was the first flower to grow on the WWI battlefields in France.
- Three soldiers are buried in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
- Memorial Day was commemorated to honor the Civil War.
- Calverton National Cemetery on Long Island in New York is the country’s largest national cemetery.
- Traditionally, Memorial Day was celebrated on May 30 each year, but in 1968 the federal government designated the third Monday in May as the official holiday.
- The idea for Memorial Day—and the first celebration of it—took place in: Washington, DC; New Orleans, Louisiana; Waterloo, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
(Fun Facts Answer: Scroll to the bottom.)
Word of the Month
tranche | tranSH | noun
• a portion of something, especially money
“Keith received the first tranche of his overly generous annual bonus on January 1.”
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SATisfy Your Curiosity
SAT Exam practice question: Select the pair that best expresses a relationship similar to that expressed in the original pair.
LUNG : WHALE
- shell : clam
- claw : crab
- gill : fish
- fin : shark
- pearl : oyster
(SAT Answer: Scroll to the bottom.)
Word Origins
A hobbit is a small humanoid creature with hairy feet and a fondness for pipe-weed. This character was created by J. R. R. Tolkien in his 1937 novel The Hobbit. But contrary to what most people believe, Tolkien did not coin the term hobbit.
The word is from English folklore, where it is a name for a type of spirit or mythical creature. The word is recorded in the Denham Tracts, a series of privately published compilations of folklore by Michael Denham, produced between 1846–59. Denham gives no description of what a hobbit is. The name simply appears in a long list of such names: …boggleboes, bogies, portunes, grants, hobbits, hobgoblins.
The hob portion of the word is most likely a nickname for Robert and appears in a number of names of spirits and creatures, such as hobgoblin and hob-thrush. A form of Robert also appears in the name Robin Goodfellow, a name known to us today mainly from Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but which was used generally as a name for a sprite or fairy.
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SAT Answer
Answer: Just as a lung is the main respiratory organ of a whale, a gill is the main respiratory organ of a fish.
Difficulty: Easy
Fun Facts Answer
The story of Memorial Day begins in the summer of 1865 in Waterloo, NY, when a local druggist, Henry C. Welles, mentioned to some of his friends that everyone should remember the patriotic dead by placing flowers on the soldiers’ graves. Nothing resulted from this suggestion until he mentioned the idea again the following spring to General John B. Murray. Murray, a civil war hero and intensely patriotic, supported the idea and marshaled the support of other veterans. Plans were developed for a more complete celebration by a local citizens’ committee headed by Welles and Murray.
On May 5, 1866, the village of Waterloo was decorated with flags at half mast and buildings were draped with evergreens and mourning black. Veterans, civic societies, and residents, led by General Murray, marched to the strains of martial music to the three village cemeteries where impressive ceremonies were held and the soldiers’ graves were decorated. One year later, on May 5, 1867, the ceremonies were repeated. In 1868, Waterloo joined with other communities in holding their observance on May 30th. It has been held annually ever since.