Author: Michelle Troutman

1. Think time — When we take pen to page or finger or stylus to screen, the slower movements of our hand and fingers give us a few more seconds to gather our thoughts.

2. Short cuts — The time we spend writing by hand can make us less likely to ramble on; we’ll feel less wordy, especially if writer’s cramp sets in during the process.

3. Better focus — Armed with just a pen and a blank page, fewer visuals can distract you from writing.

4. Mindfulness — The act of hand writing can use more of our brain — including the right and left hemispheres — than typing and result in a more thoughtful piece. As quoted in Reader’s Digest, “‘Writing by hand is different from typing because it requires using strokes to create a letter, rather than just selecting the whole letter by touching a key,’ says Virginia Berninger, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington. These finger movements activate large regions of the brain involved in thinking, memory, and language.”

5. Freedom — Lack of distractions, more time with the page, greater care in our wording, and use of our minds can unleash our creative spirits to take our writing to a deeper level, especially if we don’t write by hand often. A change of routine, such as a sunny day rest on a park bench writing with pen and notepad might be a great way to refresh your prose and stimulate a new perspective.

Quotes

“I write with a felt-tip pen, or sometimes a pencil, on yellow or white legal pads, that fetish of American writers. I like the slowness of writing by hand.” ~ Susan Sontag

“People complain that writing by hand is slow, but that can be good for thinking and creating. It slows us down to think and to contemplate and to revise and recast. Its physical presence can be a goad to completing tasks, whereas computer files can easily be hidden and thus forgotten.” ~ David Allen, Getting Things Done

Comments? Suggestions? Need help with your writing? Feel free to contact me.

Michelle Troutman
classywriting.com

1. The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White
This is one of the first and shortest books to improve your writing I’ve ever read; much of the advice is memorable, and I apply it to this day. It was first published over 100 years ago, but good style is always in fashion. Some grammar snobs hate it because they consider the advice too rigid and archaic, but for everyone else, the book offers the best of the basics.

2. The Elements of Grammar by Margaret Sherzer
This is somewhat of a companion to Strunk and White’s book, published by the same publisher, Macmillan. It’s a short guide to punctuation, spelling, and usage, which you can browse by topic for an “on the spot remedy” to heal common writing ailments.

3. The Chicago Manual of Style by University of Chicago Press Staff (Editor) and 4. The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law by The Associated Press
Following a certain style is good for consistency in your English usage, and for consultation when you’re not sure how to write certain words or to properly credit facts or sources.

These books to improve your writing can be your bibles to write “right.” Some key differences between both style guides lie in the formatting of certain words and punctuation. For example, AP style is well-known for omitting the serial, or Oxford, comma.

5. Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
Goldberg applied her experiences with Zen meditation to writing, making it simpler by removing the rules. With short chapters, you don’t have to read her book cover-to-cover for insights. Some of the advice can seem a little bohemian, especially with her references to writing in cafés, and her emphasis on poetry. I’ve found the writing exercises helpful for writing better descriptions. They can apply to any type of writing. Or, to go further beyond, to quote Ms. Goldberg, “What is said here about writing can be applied to running, painting, anything you love and have chosen to work with in your life.”

6. On Writing Well by William Zinsser
“This is a book for people who want to learn how to write. It’s also a book for people in every kind of job who have to do some writing just to get through the day; most people do more writing than they realize.” ~ William Zinsser

Separated into two parts, Zinsser’s book covers “Principles” and “Forms and Methods.” He preaches four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity, and humanity. His “informal guide to writing non-fiction” covers these and other basics, on such topics as usage, revisions, and oh, yes, even business writing; he uses anecdotes and personal experiences to illustrate his points.

Quotes

“Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.” ~ William Zinsser

“Play around. Dive into absurdity and write. Take chances. You will succeed if you are fearless of failure.”  ~ Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within

Comments? Suggestions? Need help with your writing? Feel free to email me: michelle “at” classywriting.com

Michelle Troutman
Classy Writing
207.332.8379