5 Rules for Every Writer

Author of acclaimed books such as the Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis is renowned for his ability to communicate complex ideas and deep emotion with vivid clarity and a winsome tone. His abilities transcend genre, medium, demographic, and generation. 

In a letter to a young writer, C. S. Lewis lays out 5 simple pieces of advice that can sharpen every type of writing, whether formal or casual, poetry or prose, fiction or nonfiction.

1) Be clear

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.

In an essay entitled “Cross Examination,” Lewis amplifies this idea…

The reader, we must remember, does not start by knowing what we mean. If our words are ambiguous, our meaning will escape him. I sometimes think that writing is like driving sheep down a road. If there is any gate open to the left or the right, the readers will mostly go into it.

2) Be direct

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

3) Use concrete nouns

Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “more people died,” don’t say “mortality rose.”

4) Let the reader experience for themselves

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.”

In Studies in Words, Lewis expounds…

Avoid all epithets which are merely emotional. It is no use telling us that something was “mysterious” or “loathsome” or “awe-inspiring” or “voluptuous.” Do you think your readers will believe you just because you say so? You must go quite a different way to work. By direct description, by metaphor and simile, by secretly evoking powerful associations, by offering the right stimuli to our nerves (in the right degree and the right order), and by the very beat and vowel-melody and length and brevity of your sentences, you must bring it about that we, we readers, not you, exclaim “how mysterious!” or “loathsome” or whatever it is. Let me taste for myself, and you’ll have no need to tell me how I should react to the flavor.

5) Use proportional language

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.

Again, in Studies in Words, Lewis calls this inflation of language “verbicide” — the murder of a word.

Men often commit verbicide because they want to snatch a word as a party banner, to appropriate its “selling quantity.” … The greatest cause of verbicide is the fact that most people are obviously far more anxious to express their approval and disapproval of things than to describe them.

Conclusion

Each of Lewis’ points of wisdom is related to word choice. In summary, he advises writers to be intentional and strategic in their choice of vocabulary, counseling us to choose words that are clear, direct, concrete, descriptive, and proportional.

Sound advice for every writer, whether composing an email, an essay, a note, or a novel.