Sin and Syntax
How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose
Excerpt
Words
The French mime Etienne Decroux used to remind his students, "One pearl is
better than a whole necklace of potatoes." What is true for that wordless art
form applies equally to writing: well-crafted prose depends on the writer's
ability to discriminate between pearls and potatoes. Only some words are fit to
be strung into sentences.
Great writers are meticulous with their pearls, sifting through piles of words
and stringing only perfect specimens upon the thread of syntax. The careful
execution of beautiful, powerful prose through beautiful, powerful words is
guided by these principles:
Relish every word. True prose stylists carry on an impassioned, lifelong
love affair with words, banishing bad words like so many banal suitors,
burnishing the good ones till they shimmer. Be infatuated, be seduced, be
obsessed.
But be smart about words, too. "All words are pegs to hang ideas on," wrote
nineteenth-century essayist Henry Ward Beecher: words not linked to ideas are
not worthy of writing ... read full excerpt from: Sin and Syntax ebook
