There’s more to his books than word engineering (I really hesitate to call Strunk & White a writing guide.)
Lots of rules to know when to break.
Indeed. Rules such as one should never use more than six o’s in spooge.
-wumpus
There’s more to his books than word engineering (I really hesitate to call Strunk & White a writing guide.)[/quote]
That was my point, however terse. The reviewer who was quoted at the beginning of this thread should read Strunk and White. It gives you ground rules for good writing. It is not a replacement for talent or even sweat equity.
Once a person has a good feel for those ground rules, so they are able to write correctly, they can then proceed to developing their own voice, and writing well.
As ever,
Loyd Case
BEST BOOK EVAR!!!111
See, my point is that following Strunk & White makes for dull, bad writing. Reading that book and trying to follow it killed my love of writing for many months. It was only when I decided it was bullshit and started learning on my own again that I got back some spirit. I don’t disagree that I could have learned things from Strunk & White - in fact I’ve probably learned many of those things from sheer practice.
However, I wouldn’t have learned to balance strict rules with interesting embellishments - I’d have been a word engineer rather than a writer, someone who assembled articles that were dry and bereft of character. I might have learned many things about putting words together in a proper fashion, but what good would it have done if I hated the act of writing itself after I was done?
BTW, I don’t fancy myself as good a writer as Tom or Mark or half the people on this board, but I’m learning and still enjoying it. That’s better than putting together Associated Press news slips disguised as reviews.
You’ve misunderstood Strunk & White Jakub. It’s the Elements of style, not a “how to” book. It’s an eloquent treatise on how language should be used. Much like a book that teaches you how to read music isn’t going to teach you how to really play music passionately, Strunk and White only teaches you how to write. It’s up to you to make your writing special.
“BTW, I don’t fancy myself as good a writer as Tom or Mark or half the people on this board”
Aha! I’m willing to bet Tom and Mark and half the people on this board read and believe in Strunk & White. Maybe that’s why they’re, as you imply, better writers than you Jakub?
It’s not a set of rules, in the sense that Chess has a specific rule set. Think of good, basic grammar as a baseline. From there, you move forward. I comprehend your point about “word engineering”.
At any rate, I didn’t come acress S&W until years after I’d been writing. Even then, it proved useful, because I learned that fewer words were sometimes better.
My problem (as a writer), is that I’m too much a seat-of-the-pants writer. I rarely rewrite, though it would probably improve my work. Too much of my web stuff goes live as a first draft, and even a lot of my print work gets few revisions.
On the other hand, it’s not meant to be art, just good explanatory writing. If I were writing fiction, I’d probably spend much more sweat equity.
As ever,
Loyd Case
I’ve read Strunk & White. Then set it on fire. It breeds people who get the technical skills to become writers, but have no knack for it.
I know what you mean about going back to re-write, or posting first drafts. I do that all the time, since I can’t stand looking at my own work for at least a month after I’m done, and I don’t have the time to go look back at it anyway =/
I disagree that game reviews are mere explanatory writing - they need to be entertaining. People don’t read game reviews to see if they want to buy a game. Most read them after buying the game, to confirm their opinions. Many read them to be entertained by fancy allusions, or to be educated with obscure comparisons. If people read reviews before making a purchase, Master of Orion 3 wouldn’t be the top-selling game right now.
Depends what you mean by writing. For basic sound grammar, sentence structure and clarity, a style manual is crucial for some people. Review writing is much different from technical writing, journalism, essay writing, letter writing, etc. You won’t find a “game review writing manual”. Technical skills are important for most people who write - as a former colleague once told me, “Before you can fire the canon you need to know how to load it.”
In any case, the best cure for bad writing is reading widely. A balanced diet of newspapers, novels, poetry and history will make most people good writers. The best bet is to read people who write well.
I recommend Fowler’s English Usage, too.
Troy
No. Most people you hear about yammering on public message boards read reviews for this purpose. The people you see regularly on message boards do not comprise the entire buying public. They are, in fact, a vocal minority. These people are also generally idiots, who seem to actually enjoy spending $50 for the “privilege” of being able to bitch about having blown $50 on a shitty game…even more so than buying and playing a good game.
A review that emphasizes “fancy allusions” over discussing whether or not a game is actually worth buying, and why, is completely, utterly worthless. Coincidentally, or maybe not, the majority of all game reviews emphasize “fancy allusions” over discussing the actual games themselves.
If majority of the game-buying public actually wanted “fancy allusions” in highly entertaining, hysterically funny reviews over an actual focus on games, the game-buying public wouldn’t be spending money on games, they’d be blowing it all on tickets to their local comedy club.
On a related note, Orwell’s Politics and the English Language is a useful Strunk & White supplement.
I agree completely. As far as I’m concerned though, S&W is at best a peripheral guide for game reviews. On a side note, one of my favorite books is a collection of Churchill’s speeches - he’s very adept at the art of manipulating words and his speeches work great on paper.
I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear. I agree that game reviews aren’t mere explanatory writing. To the extent that games are similar to other media, there’s great potential for more eloquent writing, as we’ve seen from Tom’s reviews. (Or from Johnny Wilson’s reviews – that man could write).
The majority of my work consists of hardware reviews, which tends to be more cut and dried. When I do review games, it’s an opportunity for me to stretch out a bit. I had a great time writing the Treasure Planet review for CGW.
Cheers,
Loyd case
I feel your pain. Hardware would be easy to write if it wasn’t so tedious.
Agreed. This is an outstanding resource, along with S&W.
I don’t. It’s a fantastic writing guide, and I would recommend it to anyone that writes professionally. I’m not sure why you think S&W advocates dull prose. Care to elaborate?
Orwell also teaches us how to peel paint with sheer force of invective. :D
I don’t. It’s a fantastic writing guide, and I would recommend it to anyone that writes professionally. I’m not sure why you think S&W advocates dull prose. Care to elaborate?[/quote]
Simple: I started using it and made sample essays that I never bothered with again because they were dull. I found that having to follow all these rules took the fun out of the act of writing, and thus had the side-effect of making my own writing dull.
True Strunk & White story…
During one of my first few classes in media writing, my professer lectured us on style, tone, not making stupid mistakes,etc. She then said, probably the best thing you can do for your writing was to go out and get Strunk & White.
At this point another student in class (wasn’t me, I swear) said, “You’re kidding!” The prof looked really confused. She pulled out her copy of the book and started to explain what was in it. The student then said, “Oh, I see. I thought you told us to go out and get drunk tonight.”
RE: Elements of Style
- Learn the rules.
- Practice the rules.
- Once you have learned the rules and have understood why there are there, break them at your leisure.
It takes TALENT -and- TECHNICAL ABILITY to become a writer. I can, for example, get all Hemmingway hammered and blast out a twenty page short story full of all sorts of neat ideas in about four hours. Then I have to spend a week reworking it into readability – fixing gross technical errors, killing meandering passages, tightening it up, and the like.
Unfortunately, most writing on the web resembles mine after about 8 or 9 beers. We need a host of vicious, rabid editors to come down like rain to wash all the trash and filth from the streets. Except for the Follies, of course. Every continuity error, spelling error, and grammar blowup is well-deliberated and stuff.