Week 15 Story Lab: C. S. Lewis’s 5 Rules For Writers
I've searched through and read several articles in Writers Write website. One article that really caught my attention was "C. S. Lewis’s 5 Rules For Writers" This article caught my attention because I thought C.S. Lewis was one of the greatest writers of all time. To hear a writing advice from such renown writer, I thought, would greatly enhance my writing abilities. C.S. Lewis also wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, which I only watched in movie and tv series.
I took all of his five advices to heart. I think they're all very important and useful tips for writing stories.
I like the first advice: "Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else." Wow.. I was like..'what a practical advice is it that comes from a really renown writer. His first advice, in short, was get the message across clear so the readers can understand your writing.
I also like his second advice which says, "Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them." I like this guy, C.S. Lewis. His mind is really concise and clear. I'm fed up with reading Twitter streams and facebook posts, which are both extremely messy. In times like today, a priceless advice of Lewis is very valuable.
His third advice goes, "Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose”." It's so true. Many writers, especially those who write novels, do that all the time. This is an amazing advice for any writer who want their readers to "read" their books.
Another amazing advice, "In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible”, describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please will you do my job for me.” It's amazing. This advice is what all those ambiguous, self-absorbed writers, including many poets and novelists, need to take into their heart if they want to be successful like C.S. Lewis.
Like Lewis said, it's important to not overexaggerate: "Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite." So the story sounds like what the writer means to say.
I took all of his five advices to heart. I think they're all very important and useful tips for writing stories.
I like the first advice: "Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else." Wow.. I was like..'what a practical advice is it that comes from a really renown writer. His first advice, in short, was get the message across clear so the readers can understand your writing.
I also like his second advice which says, "Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them." I like this guy, C.S. Lewis. His mind is really concise and clear. I'm fed up with reading Twitter streams and facebook posts, which are both extremely messy. In times like today, a priceless advice of Lewis is very valuable.
His third advice goes, "Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose”." It's so true. Many writers, especially those who write novels, do that all the time. This is an amazing advice for any writer who want their readers to "read" their books.
Another amazing advice, "In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible”, describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please will you do my job for me.” It's amazing. This advice is what all those ambiguous, self-absorbed writers, including many poets and novelists, need to take into their heart if they want to be successful like C.S. Lewis.
Like Lewis said, it's important to not overexaggerate: "Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite." So the story sounds like what the writer means to say.
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