Database Reference
In-Depth Information
you cannot wRite well without data. 1
An author of data products faces many of the same creative challenges as
writers. You struggle to find a message, speak to an audience, and develop
an expressive style. Over the years, many accomplished authors have offered
their wisdom for new writers. The lessons translate even if you work with
data instead of words.
Find Inspiration
Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should
care about. It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be
the most compelling and seductive element in your style.
—Kurt Vonnegut
If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has
ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to
another. The formula seems to lie solely in the aching urge of the writer to convey
something he feels important to the reader. If the writer has that urge, he may
sometimes, but by no means always, find the way to do it.2
—John Steinbeck
Develop a Direct, Clear Style
Readers want our pages to look very much like pages they have seen before.
Why? This is because they themselves have a tough job to do, and they need all
the help they can get from us.3
—Kurt Vonnegut
Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. A rule that came to mind in
1983. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you
can see have too many words in them. What the writer is doing, he's writing,
perpetrating hooptedoodle, perhaps taking another shot at the weather, or
has gone into the character's head, and the reader either knows what the guy's
thinking or doesn't care. I'll bet you don't skip dialogue.
—Elmore Leonard
Learn from the Best
No aspiring author should content himself with a mere acquisition of technical
rules. … All attempts at gaining literary polish must begin with judicious reading,
and the learner must never cease to hold this phase uppermost. In many cases,
the usage of good authors will be found a more effective guide than any amount
of precept.
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