Saturday, January 31, 2009

For My Writing Friends:

C.S. Lewis on writing, from a letter written to Joan Lancaster on 26/6/56:

Dear Joan--

Thanks for your letter of the 3rd. You describe your Wonderful Night v. well. That is, you describe the place & the people and the night and feeling of it all, very well--but not the thing itself--the setting but not the jewel. And no wonder! Wordsworth often does just the same. His Prelude (you're bound to read it about ten years' hence. Don't try it now, or you'll only spoil it for later reading) is full of moments in which everything except the thing itself is described. If you become a writer you'll be trying to describe the thing all your life: and lucky if, out of dozens of books, one or two sentences, just for a moment, come near to getting it across.

About amn't I, aren't I, and am I not, of course there are no right and wrong answers about language in the sense in which there are right and wrong answers in Arithmetic. 'Good English' is whatever educated people talk: so that what is good in one place or time wd. not be so in another. Amn't was good fifty years ago in the North of Ireland where I was brought up, but bad in Southern England. Aren't I wd. have been hideously bad in Ireland but was good in England. And of course I just don't know which (if either) is good in modern Florida. Don't take any notice of teachers and text-books on such matters. Nor of logic. It is good to say 'More than one passenger was hurt' although more than one equals at least two and therefore logically the verb ought to be plural were not singular was! What really matters is:--

1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure yr. sentence couldn't mean anything else.

2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don't implement promises, but keep them.

3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean 'more people died' don't say 'mortality rose.'

4. 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 saying to your readers 'Please will you do my job for me.'

5. Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very': otherwise you'll have no other word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

Thanks for the photos. You and Aslan both look v. well. I hope you like your new home.

With love,
Yours,
C.S. Lewis

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