No one has something original or important to say will willing we run the risk of being misunderstood; people who write obscurely are either unskilled in writing or up to mischief

A clear sentence is no accident.

Avoid the ecstatic adjectives that occupy such disproportionate space in every critic's quiver - words like "enthralling" and "luminous."

Today the outlandish becomes routine overnight. The humorist is trying to say that it's still outlandish.

Editors are licensed to be curious.

All writers should strive to deliver something fresh-something editors or readers won't know they want until they see it.

Also bear in mind, when you're choosing your words and stringing them together, how they sound. This may seem absurd: readers read with their eyes. But in fact they hear what they are reading far more than you realize.