1. “Always write (and read) with the ear, not the eye. You should hear every sentence you write as if it was being read aloud or spoken. If it does not sound nice, try again.”   

2. “Read all the good books you can, and avoid nearly all magazines.”   

3. “Write about what really interests you, whether it is real things or imaginary things, and nothing else. (Notice this means that if you are interested only in writing you will never be a writer, because you will have nothing to write about)”   

4. “Be sure you know the meaning (or meanings) of every word you use.”   

5. “Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say ‘infinitely’ when you mean ‘very’; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really  infinite.”   

6. “Read all the good books you can, and avoid nearly all magazines.”   

7. “Take great pains to be clear. Remember that though you start by knowing what you mean, the reader doesn’t, and a single ill-chosen word may lead him to a total misunderstanding. In a story it is terribly easy just to forget that you have not told the reader something that he needs to know—the whole picture is so clear in your own mind that you forget that it isn’t the same in his.”   

8. “Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.”   

9. “Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose.”   

10. “In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please will you do my job for me.”           

C.S. Lewis 

Clive Staples Lewis was born November 29th, 1898, Belfast, Ireland, died November 22nd, 1963, Oxford, United Kingdom. Lewis was a British novelist, He is best known for his works, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Space Trilogy. Lewis wrote more than 30 books, and has been translated into 30 languages and sold over 10 million copies.      

“I have found a desire within myself that no experience in this world can satisfy; the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” ~ C.S. Lewis   

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