Writing skills

Most non-fiction books I read are too long, many are poorly written in general. Authors routinely repeat themselves, play with anecdotes and explanations that do not strengthen their arguments, or describe several nearly identical examples when one would suffice. I recognize that it is especially challenging for a non-native speaker to write well, and some of the books I have been reading recently were written by people for whom English is second language. However, isn't it the editor's job to help with that? And what about those many well educated, native speakers? I do not see a connection between the quality of the author's insight and the quality of his writing. 

Clear, concise books are priceless. I admire 37 signals team for their short, fun and informative "Rework". I regret that "The Black Swan" is so hard to read, because it probably makes many people abandon it or not recommend it to others (despite its great content).

When a book I'm reading is too long, but seems to have valuable content, I try skipping parts that are just illustrations of an argument the author had already made. When it is just poorly written - which often implies poor structure - it is hard to skip large fragments without risking losing important content.   

I realize I will have to work hard to become a good writer myself. I have always enjoyed writing and it seems to be growing in importance in my life. This blog is an exercise in writing just as much as it is a tool for recording and sharing what I learn. I am spending considerable time editing each post even after it is published. I share some of the articles with a friend or two before publishing to get feedback - a practice I borrowed from Paul Graham. I have recently read "The Elements of Style". I am now experimenting with Etherpad as a tool to find out a bit about my own process of writing. Here's an example of what it can do for you (hit the "Play" button). I also started reading "Thinking on Paper", a book about how the process of writing not only allows you to record thoughts, but also facilitates thinking and discovery. I welcome your feedback on my writing style.

Comments

[Aaron]

In case you are not aware of them, try the short stories and novels by Joseph Conrad for great examples of good English writing by an author who was not a native English speaker (he was born to Polish parents in Kiev).

[Jakub Petrykowski]

Ironically, I read Polish translations of some of Conrad's works in high school as part of Polish language class (which is traditionally combined with literature class). At that time I didn't know how much I can lose by reading translated works. Shame.

Thanks for an interesting pointer, Aaron.

[Jakub Petrykowski]

I tried reading "Lord Jim" in English. I couldn't.

I can hardly understand its language. The author uses many rare adjectives and nouns I have never seen before. I need to carefully decipher the meaning of each sentence. Perhaps it is a well written book, but I found it to be extremely unpleasant to read.

I liked Tolkien's works a lot, especially "Silmarillion" which I only read in English (as opposed to his other books which I read in Polish first). It seemed well written and the presence of older English language and rare words somehow wasn't a nuisance. Hm.