Key points ‘On writing well’ and my favourite book’s beginnings

• Before you start, decide: in what capacity are you going to address the reader (reporter, average man/woman, provider of information); what style (personal and casual, personal and formal, impersonal); what attitude are you going to take toward the material (judgemental, ironic, amused, involved, detached)
• Set a time and place to write about, every writing project must be reduced before you start to write
• Writing is learned by imitation
• Clutter unnecessary words
• Reader want you to sound genuine
• A successful piece should leave the writer with 1 provocative thought
• Considerate sound and rythm
• Don’t become the prisoner of a preconceived plan, the material may lead you to an unexpected direction, just make sure to make thw adjustments so your style is consistent from start to finish
• Every paragraph must capture the reader immediately with freshness, or novelty, or humor, or surprise, an unusual idea, an interesting fact, surprise or a qustion.
• Use active voive over passive voice. Active verbs push the sentence forward and gives momentum
• Don’t use adverbs or adjectives unless they do necessary work
• Good writing is lean and confident, ‘little qualifiers’ dilute your style and persuasiveness
• Always make sure your readers are oriented, ask your self where you left them in the previous sentence
• Writing is visual, it catches your eye before it has a change to catch your brin, keep your paragraphs short.
• Beginning and endings make a big difference for reader engagement. (Remember the beginnig of your favourote books)
• Rewriting is the essence of writing well

My favourite book’s openings:

A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

100 years of solitude: “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”

The Pride and Prejudice first line: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”