Writing

The thing about writing that I think we don't often talk about it the use of "tools", which I mean how sometimes an idea comes to me and I quickly latch on to it, and it leads to other ideas, but later on, I delete the first idea as it is not as relevant to my work as the ideas that followed it.

I rely a lot on tools actually. I write a lot, but I also delete a lot. It's like an expletive paragraph or sentence.

I recently read this:

We can hardly talk without the expletive, for it gives us time to shape our thoughts. But when we write, and therefore have time to revise, we ought to cast away unnecessary baggage, and that often means the expletive. We are not suggesting that you never use It is or There are - they have their uses. You just should not overuse them or fall back on them to avoid a little extra effort or thought. (Packer & Timpane, 1986, p. 219)

I'm reading up on "Writing with Economy" now...

It's something I strongly believe in... That as writers, we can respect our readers' time and energy, by writing as clearly and directly as possible. I would like to invest as much effort on copyediting as for this purpose. I believe it's not enough to have good ideas, but you need to express them well and in a timeless manner as well.

Packer, N. H. & Timpane, J. (1986) Writing worth reading: A practical guide. St. Martin's Press and New York: A Bedford Book

(This is actually surprisingly a book I really like. Not a sit down to read finish it book like Wolcott's but a now and then I need a little probing and direction, I refer to it type of book.)