The Elements of Style

What Hacker News says

1. 0xDEAFBEADJun 2025
   >her books are easy to read for lack of a better description (though this latter features in much contemporary writing).

   Maybe linguistic evolution is playing a role? Contemporary writing is easiest to read because it's written in contemporary English?

   I also think The Elements of Style had a real and positive influence, in terms of e.g. sentences getting shorter: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/xYn3CKir4bTMzY5eb/why-have-s...

   Show morethread
2. o11cApr 2025
   Good sci-fi must first of all be good writing. Read through the entire text of The Elements of Style [1] - the original, by Strunk only, is in the public domain now, and almost entirely still relevant; newer versions do flesh it out more so get one eventually. Remember that since grammar and style aren't really separate concepts, you can break the rules ... but you have a "strangeness budget" (my term) that is very important not to exceed. And for speculative fiction in general, it is very common to have to spend some of the budget on introducing new vocabulary and concepts. Remaining similar to widely-known works (when possible) is a major way to reduce the cost.

   To get good, you also need to actually, you know, write. A story of a few thousand words isn't hard to write, whether you tend to fall into the trap of endless worldbuilding or whether you tend to fall into the trap of writing by the seat of your pants.

   For the science, there's a lot of reference material in [2]. Remember that realism doesn't necessarily make a good story, but any deviations should be deliberate (e.g. space opera is a distinct subgenre). I do personally find sci-fi tends to be better than fantasy because authors are more likely to actually try to make something coherent. (90% of everything is still crap though, whether due to lack of trying or lack of competence).

   All speculative fiction is political, but try to leave a good story even if every part of your personal politics is removed from the story. If you can't do this, it's not a good sci-fi story (let alone a good overall story), at most it's a good $yourpoliticalfaction propaganda story (for sci-fi, this is particularly common for military glorification, weird sex stuff, and a whole host of society-ordering utopias/dystopias). Regardless, never "surprise" the reader with your take - if you have an agenda, put it in the blurb, tags, and in the first chapter; if you don't, you have no one to blame but yourself when you get (correctly) review-bombed (often, even by people who agree with your politics, since we read to escape). If you construct a metaphor to attack a real-world target, make sure a 5-year-old can't poke a hole in it; don't make your villain gratuitously stupid. (Note that "courtly intrigue", although in-universe politics, often isn't politics by a real-world perspective, just character drama).

   The best writing is timeless. This is sometimes difficult for writers of genre-defining works, because "Seinfeld" is Unfunny.

   [1] https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37134 [2] https://projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/

   Show morethread
3. selbykFeb 2025
   You aren't asking for homework, but I highly recommend The Elements of Style.

   They make such boring topics as grammar and composition a pleasure to read and apply. I read it multiple times in high school, and I still find myself repeating some of the rules to myself when I revise my writing.

   Including rule 17:

   "17. Omit needless words.

   Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell."

   Show morethread
4. KerrickDec 2024
   Read the following books:

   - On Writing Well by William Zissner

   - Several Short Sentences About Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg

   - The Elements of Style, 4th Edition by Strunk & White

   - Good Prose by Kidder & Todd

   - Wordcraft by Jack Hart

   - Storycraft by Jack Hart

   - The Art and Craft of Feature Writing by William Blundell

   - The Art and Craft of Storytelling by Nancy Lamb

   Show morethread
5. surfingdinoAug 2024
   Also, get a copy of Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style" and read it often.
   thread
6. kaycebasquesJul 2024
   Just ordered the true Gang of Four:

   * The C Programming Language

   * The UNIX Programming Environment

   * The Practice of Programming

   * The Elements of Programming Style

   I've read the C book before and also remember the writing to be excellent. I'm sure I'll pick up lots of programming wisdom but I'm also approaching this as a technical writer, figuring out what exactly makes Kernighan's books so good. I have a hunch that Kernighan has studied writing a lot, or has at least done a lot of "first principles thinking" about writing. The title "The Elements of Programming Style" for example is a reference to one of the most famous books about writing style, "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White (which everyone should read once; it literally fits easily into your back pocket).

   Show morethread