If you want to write, read--familiar advice. Naturally you want to read the classic authors and the best authors in your genre, but I want to add one more tip to that.
If you’re not the scientific type, get a copy of “Best American Science Writing 2011,” published by HarperCollins/Ecco Press.
That’s right, I said if you’re NOT a scientific type.
I believe we can learn from the best writing of any kind. For instance, if you’re a fiction writer, you want to capture the reader’s attention with a dramatic opening. How’s this:
“We’re swinging on anchor this afternoon as powerful bursts of wind blow down through the Makua Valley and out to sea. The gales stop and start every 15 minutes, as abruptly as if a giant on the far side of the Hawaiian island of Oahu were switching a fan on and off. We sail at the gusts' mercy, listing hard to starboard, then snapping hard against the anchor chain before recoiling to port. The intermittent tempests make our work harder and colder. We shiver during the microbursts, sweat during the interludes, then shiver again from our own sweat.”
That’s the opening of “BP’s Deep Secrets: the BP Cover-up,” one of the essays included in the collection, written by Julia Whitty and originally published in Mother Jones Magazine.
There are lots of others you can find—collections of writing on travel, music, science and nature, food, sports, even mathematics (I confess I haven’t been brave enough to tackle that last one).
Pick one that's outside your normal area of writing and interest—you may find some approaches you can adapt to your particular type of writing (plus you’ll learn a lot).
(Of course it also helps to read books about the writing process such as....let me see if I can think of one at random...oh yes, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available now from Amazon and other booksellers.)
