Thursday, September 14, 2017

Know Your Enemy

"I have read your story. I don't think it's bad, but you must stop using too many adjectives. Study Hemingway, particularly his early work and learn how to write short sentences and how to eschew all those beastly adjectives."

Roald Dahl's forthright response to teenager Jay Williams in 1980, after the aspiring author sent him a sample of his work for comment and appraisal.

OK, so this should really have gone up on the site yesterday, to coincide with Roald Dahl Day - but it needed to be posted simply because it's advice I would do very well to heed myself...

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