Walser walking
“Without walking and the contemplation of nature which is connected with it, without this equally delicious and instructive, equally refreshing and constantly admonishing search, I deem myself lost, and indeed am lost.”
Sentence-starting conjunctions
Yes, Virginia, you can begin a sentence with a conjunction.
Mesopotamia: Bushmiller Country
The proto-cuneiform of kur, mountain: some rocks!
From A Time of Gifts
The best parts of A Time of Gifts thus far: its scenes of hospitality.
The page-ninety-nine test
Should really be the page-ninety test.
Metaphors for writing
From Walter Benjamin.
How to improve writing (no. 50)
“I don’t think a copyeditor can be held responsible for mistakes in a writer’s prose.”
Pen, not dead yet
“The New York Times has given Nick Bilton the space in its Fashion & Style section to announce that the pen is dead. Yes, linkbait.”
“Avoid haphazard writing materials”
Walter Benjamin’s advice
From Robert Walser
“That early time was certainly wonderful.”
From Robert Walser
“What was important melted away, and I devoted undivided attention to the most unimportant things and was very happy doing so.”
Roger Angell on Don Zimmer
Irresistible writing.
Roger Angell, notebook man
He likes Mead.
A Bryan Garner story
“Jim, good usage isn’t nearly as fluid as you’re suggesting.” Good advice for writing for any audience.
Also from Robert Walser
“When I read, I am a harmless, nice and quiet person and I don’t do anything stupid.”
From Robert Walser
The more I read of Robert Walser, the more I want to read.
Ballpoints, not for writing?
From The Jeffersons: “Ballpoint pens are not for writing. They’re for making marks.”
The end-of-paragraph transition
A strange problem. I’ve never found an authoritative source that addresses it clearly. Until now.
Writing advice from Verlyn Klinkenborg
You can almost never fix a sentence — Or find a better sentence within it — By using the words it already contains.
Recently updated
About Dropbox’s plain style.
Dropbox and the plain style
Revised Terms of Service. This writing inspires trust.
Verlyn Klinkenborg on the English major
“Ventriloquistic syntax.”
Writing and belief
I believe in black ink, yellow legal pads, and many other things.
National Handwriting Day
Handwriting’s day has not yet passed.
“It's not the tool”
From The Onion: “New Leather-Bound Notebook To Really Unleash Area Woman’s Creativity.”
Recently updated
An open-source alternative to Grammarly and WhiteSmoke.
Hog Bay Software iOS apps
An e-mail from Jesse Grosjean announces that Hog Bay Software will no longer develop its iOS apps.
From Verlyn Klinkenborg
From Several Short Sentences About Writing.
Sentences and economics
From Richard Lanham, Revising Prose.
How to improve writing (no. 49)
When you’re composing a bulk e-mail, never forget that you’re composing a bulk e-mail.