Tag Archives: Timeless

Timeless Writing Advice from C.S. Lewis

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By all accounts, Clive Staples (C.S.) Lewis was a writer’s writer. He was a British literary scholar who penned fiction and non-fiction along with many, many assorted pieces. Think Chronicles of Narnia (Lion, Witch, Wardrobe) and Miracles. When C.S. Lewis died in 1963, he was famous world-wide as a brilliant man and a decent one, too.

Recently, I was Facebook scrolling and an image popped up in my feed. It was a copy of short letter Lewis wrote on 14 December 1959 to a schoolgirl in America whose teacher contacted Lewis asking him to give writing advice to her student. Here’s the image:

I read this four times to let the simplicity, yet depth, of his words to sink in—the timeless writing advice from a true master. While several of his 1959 points are modified by sixty-six years of technological advances (replace radio with smartphone, but don’t dismiss the hushed computer keyboard as a clackity-clack mechanical typewriter).

The main points C.S. Lewis sets forth are eternal. Read decent stuff… filter crap. Avoid distraction. Use the ear. Evoke personal interest and imagination. Be clear. Bake the manuscript. Get in the zone; the flow. And know the meaning (or meanings) of every word you use.

Kill Zoners — What timeless writing advice can you give to today’s schoolgirl in America?

BTW, visit the S.S. Lewis official website for a complete catalog of his works.

How Many Books is/are Too Many Books?

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Read a lot. Write a lot.

That’s probably the universal message we hear from great and prolific writers, most notably from Stephen King who said, “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that. If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. Read a lot, write a lot is the great commandment.”

I read a lot. I’d write a lot, too, if I didn’t spend so much time reading. To say I have a thousand books is an understatement. It’s well north of that if you take in the digital stuff on my Kindle. That’s not including the articles I find and the posts I read that constantly drop into my inbox.

And it’s not figuring the books I’ve given away over the years—mostly because my wife said I had too many books. Which leads me to ask you the question, “How many books is/are too many books?”

I’ve always been an avid reader. So were my folks. My dad sat for hours in his recliner with books in his hands. That was before the web days and to quote my sister, “If Dad had the internet, you’d never got him off it.”

My mother was an English teacher with a Masters in Lit. Her thesis was on Thomas Hardy, and I still have part of her extensive shelves that includes most of Emerson. (I have to say I find Emerson very trying to read.)

My dad left me five volumes of Churchill’s memoirs and two volumes of Eisenhower’s. And from the two of them, (my mum and dad, not Churchill and Eisenhower) I inherited a hardcover of Treasure Island printed in 1883. Plus, they gave me a beautiful, hand-illustrated work of Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

Maybe I have too many books and that’s okay. They’ll go to my kids one day… if they want them. But I’m not parting with my books anytime soon. At least not if I can help it.

Back to my question. How many books is/are too many books? I don’t know if there’s a right or wrong answer to that.

But if I had to cull my collection and could retain only five (not counting the classics handed down from my parents) these are my keepers:

5. A dog-eared and marked-up paperback of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

4. A pristine and unfaded, first-edition hardcover of On Writing by Stephen King.

3. A delaminating Reclaiming History hand-signed by Vincent Bugloisi.

2. Descent Into Madness written by my friend Vernon Frolick.

1. My grandmother’s Bible.

Kill Zoners — How many books is/are too many books? Name the top five they’d have to pry from your hands. And what’s the proper term — is or are? Grammarly indicates it’s okay to use either.