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5 editor’s secrets to help you write like a pro. I do a lot of copyediting, both of books and advertising collateral.

5 editor’s secrets to help you write like a pro

I’ll let you in on a secret that still surprises me, although I’ve seen it hundreds of times now. If you looked at the raw work of most professional writers, you’d be pretty underwhelmed. Professional writers get work because they hit their deadlines, they stay on message, and they don’t throw too many tantrums. Some pros have a great writing voice or a superb style, but as often as not, that gets in the way. When you know that the best word is “prescient,” it’s hard to swallow when an account manager tells you the client won’t know what it means.

Professional writers rely on editors to fix their clunks. Editing, like writing, takes time to learn. 1. Have you ever heard a four-year-old run out of breath before she can finish her thought? Sentences are building blocks, not bungee cords; they’re not meant to be stretched to the limit. 2. A paragraph supports a single idea. 3. Nouns ending in -ing are fine. Read These Seven Books, and You’ll be a Better Writer. Donald Miller I used to play golf but I wasn’t very good.

Read These Seven Books, and You’ll be a Better Writer

I rented a DVD, though, that taught me a better way to swing, and after watching it a few times and spending an hour or so practicing, I knocked ten strokes off my game. I can’t believe how much time I wasted when a simple DVD saved me years of frustration. I’d say something similar is true in my writing career. If you read these books, your writing will improve to the point people who read your work will begin to comment on how well you write. . • The War of Art by Steven Pressfield: This book is aimed at writers, but it’s also applicable to anybody who does creative work. Pressfield leaves out all the mushy romantic talk about the writing life, talk I don’t find helpful. . • On Writing Well by William Zinsser: Zinsser may be the best practical writing coach out there. . • Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott: Before becoming a literary superstar, Anne Lamott taught writing, and Bird by Bird is the best of her advice, broken up into chapters.

Why I Write - Essay by George Orwell. Why I Write by George OrwellGangrel, [No. 4, Summer] 1946 From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer.

Why I Write - Essay by George Orwell

Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I should have to settle down and write books. I was the middle child of three, but there was a gap of five years on either side, and I barely saw my father before I was eight. For this and other reasons I was somewhat lonely, and I soon developed disagreeable mannerisms which made me unpopular throughout my schooldays. I had the lonely child's habit of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons, and I think from the very start my literary ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated and undervalued. However, throughout this time I did in a sense engage in literary activities. (i) Sheer egoism. It is not easy.

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