Orwell’s 5 Rules for Effective Writing
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
During a typical workday, it’s hard to say how many words I write. For the page, it can be anywhere from zero (depending on my meeting schedule) to 2,000 or so. I have no idea where that number would stand if e-mail were factored into the final tally. I’m not sure I’d want to know. In the last 11 years as a professional writer, I’ve developed my own processes and theories to abide by in this trade, but in preparing for a recent presentation on writing instruction, I came across George Orwell’s rules for effective writing. I wasn’t aware that he’d shared his theories so plainly. I also wasn’t familiar with the exchange between Faulkner and Hemingway described in this article about Orwell’s approach. My thoughts on Hemingway have been mostly middling, but this story is literary gold.
