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The Problem with Writing-Style Advice

metaphorhacker.net

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Re: The Problem with Writing-Style Advice

#31

Post by nitwit005 »

sriku wrote: post #30

> Nobody (except many frustrated readers) is officially complaining that non-fiction writing is needlessly flowery and sprawling across many more pages than necessary. Actually people do (I do too). I find that many of these books take one point that can be expressed succinctly in a short blog post and labour on it for an entire book. So to read it for entertainment is ok, but to read them for information is .. an ut…

One of my pet theories is that this is driven by what sorts of things bookstores are willing to sell, and at what prices. If they will only sell book length works, you'd better pad your idea with 200 pages of fluff, and if you want to charge a lot, better make it a fancy hardcover.

It used to be you could publish in a magazine, but those are near dead.

Re: The Problem with Writing-Style Advice

#32

Post by pdpi »

Veen wrote: post #9

I find it hard to reconcile what the author says in this article and what they say in an earlier article entitled "How to actually write a sentence", which is an explanation of how cohesion and coherence contribute to well-formed sentences, a topic Pinker spends a couple of chapters on in Sense of Style. https://metaphorhacker.net/2020/02/how-to-actually-write-a-s...

I don’t have any trouble reconciling the two. It’s fine to write about advanced topics while also writing about how people should focus on getting the beginner stuff right before worrying about the advanced stuff.

Re: The Problem with Writing-Style Advice

#33

Post by ahartmetz »

sriku wrote: post #30

> Nobody (except many frustrated readers) is officially complaining that non-fiction writing is needlessly flowery and sprawling across many more pages than necessary. Actually people do (I do too). I find that many of these books take one point that can be expressed succinctly in a short blog post and labour on it for an entire book. So to read it for entertainment is ok, but to read them for information is .. an ut…

Looking at you, Nassim Taleb and "Antifragile". He even states that he hates editors in the book.

The book has interesting things to say but they are kind of drowned in the rambling.

Re: The Problem with Writing-Style Advice

#34

Post by ahartmetz »

StopHammoTime wrote: post #12

I completely disagree with the author's point. I cannot absorb dry writing, I need to be engrossed in reading to take in the content of a book. The context that the author choose to write the book in allows you to understand the way they think about the topic. Understanding they way an expert thinks about the topic allows you to understand that topic. Writing facts is not writing, it is listing facts.

Writing about facts is not trivial! You have to flatten the dependency graph between the facts in a way that helps understanding, select what to include or omit, find metaphors sometimes, etc. Some of these require finding new insights about the facts.

You cannot just "list" facts if you want to help the reader to understand. You also don't need dramatic stories, though memorable examples help.

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