A Letter from C.S. Lewis on Writing

C.S. Lewis was one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century.  Lewis wrote many letters to fans, and many of those have been collected in books.  One such letter was advice about writing.  Now more than ever I believe that Lewis and I share a very similar view of writing.  Needless to say, I was well pleased by Lewis’ letter to Joan, as you can see here.  I’ve put some very important parts of it in bold.  Do listen to your teachers to help build a foundation for your writing, but after that, adapt.  Your personality will shine through fine if you know simple rules for writing.

The Kilns,
Headington Quarry,
Oxford
26 June 1956

Dear Joan–

Thanks for your letter of the 3rd. You describe your Wonderful Night v. well. That is, you describe the place and the people and the night and the feeling of it all, very well — but not the thing itself — the setting but not the jewel. And no wonder! Wordsworth often does just the same. His Prelude (you’re bound to read it about 10 years hence. Don’t try it now, or you’ll only spoil it for later reading) is full of moments in which everything except the thing itself is described. If you become a writer you’ll be trying to describe the thing all your life: and lucky if, out of dozens of books, one or two sentences, just for a moment, come near to getting it across.

About amn’t I, aren’t I and am I not, of course there are no right or wrong answers about language in the sense in which there are right and wrong answers in Arithmetic. “Good English” is whatever educated people talk; so that what is good in one place or time would not be so in another. Amn’t I was good 50 years ago in the North of Ireland where I was brought up, but bad in Southern England. Aren’t I would have been hideously bad in Ireland but very good in England. And of course I just don’t know which (if either) is good in modern Florida. Don’t take any notice of teachers and textbooks in such matters. Nor of logic. It is good to say “more than one passenger was hurt,” although more than one equals at least two and therefore logically the verb ought to be plural were not singular was!

What really matters is:–

1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.

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

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

4. 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.”

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.

Thanks for the photos. You and Aslan both look v. well. I hope you’ll like your new home.

With love
yours
C.S. Lewis

via Letters of Note and C.S. Lewis’ Letters to Children

7 Comments

  1. “Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.”
    Winston Churchill
    True of English especially, I think, because the old words go back to the Anglo-Saxon; before the French abstractions were imposed

  2. It would be so awesome to get a letter from C.S. Lewis, especially one with such good writing advice!

  3. This is really cool! I think it’s awesome that Lewis is still influencing writers today. 🙂

  4. Thank you so much C.S. Lewis! This advice is perfect for me, in my writing situation! 🙂 <3

  5. Awesome letter, I’m going to save it somewhere… In another letter to another kid about writing he also said never to use a typewriter (replace with computer) because the noise will destroy your ‘flow’, or something like that. (I think it’s sweet that he wrote to almost every person ever to write him. It shows he cared about his fans. And the advice in some is so good we can carry it into this century!)

  6. Wow! What good advice! I’ll try to use some of these tips in my own meager attempts! 😉

    If any one is interested, Sid Fleischman (another one of my favorite authors, but not as high as Lewis and Tolkein [Sorry, Mr. Fleischman!]) also has some very good writing tips on his website sidfleischman.com.

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