{"id":2680,"date":"2011-05-27T13:06:46","date_gmt":"2011-05-27T19:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2680"},"modified":"2011-05-27T13:13:53","modified_gmt":"2011-05-27T19:13:53","slug":"v-s-naipauls-rules-for-writers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2680","title":{"rendered":"V.S. Naipaul’s Rules for Writers"},"content":{"rendered":"

V.S. Naipaul’s rules for writers<\/a>\u2014some of them are very apt for the Web\u2014start with “1. Do not write long sentences.<\/em> A sentence should not have more than ten or twelve words.”<\/p>\n

I made Naipaul’s <\/a>acquaintance, in the literary sense, as a fifth-former at d\u00e9Carteret College<\/a> in Mandeville, Jamaica, which I briefly attended.<\/p>\n

Mr. Stanley, the English master, handed me a copy of <\/strong>The Middle Passage: Impressions of Five Societies – British, French and Dutch in the West Indies and South America<\/em><\/a> with a comment to the effect of “Read this and learn about where you are.” [more than 12 words there!]<\/p>\n

I did to the best of my 16-year-old ability, but the book fixed an idea in my head of Naipaul only as a writer of nonfiction works, which does not do him justice. [I can break the rule if I keep the paragraph short.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

V.S. Naipaul’s rules for writers\u2014some of them are very apt for the Web\u2014start with “1. Do not write long sentences. A sentence should not have more than ten or twelve words.” I made Naipaul’s acquaintance, in the literary sense, as a fifth-former at d\u00e9Carteret College in Mandeville, Jamaica, which I briefly attended. Mr. Stanley, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-2680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-He","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1762,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1762","url_meta":{"origin":2680,"position":0},"title":"Freelancing: the Horror","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Via Rod Dreher's new blog, Macroculture, comes this essay by Richard Morgan on the horrors of freelancing. By the time that I finished it, I was thinking of Knut Hamsun's novel\u00a0 Hunger. See the movie version\u2014I saw it as a teenager, and how I ever became a writer afterwards, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"writing\"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=writing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":118,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=118","url_meta":{"origin":2680,"position":1},"title":"Rejection Rejection Collection is a\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 15, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Rejection Rejection Collection is a web site to which writers submit their rejection letters and then comment on how the letters made them feel. While dwelling on their feelings, few seem to resolve to write better and to research markets better. Here, an editor reflects at greater length about how\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4364,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4364","url_meta":{"origin":2680,"position":2},"title":"British University Lecturer Faces Wrath of Choronzon","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Joanne Bedford, who teaches creative writing at The Open University in the UK, has a simple writing technique:' \u2022 Select \u2022 Copy \u2022 Paste Then you change a few words. Evidently that is the part that requires university-level instruction, since her students certainly arrive knowing the first part. It's one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1285,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1285","url_meta":{"origin":2680,"position":3},"title":"Writing English as a First Language","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Some writing is bland because it does not take chances. Other writing is bland because of poor technique.William Zinsser deals with the second in this talk to international students in the Columbia University journalism school: \"Writing English as a Second Language.\"Actually, writing\u2014as opposed to speaking\u2014is a \"second language.\" That is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"writing\"","block_context":{"text":"writing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=writing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":489,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=489","url_meta":{"origin":2680,"position":4},"title":"Writers and blogsSteven Krause, who\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 15, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Writers and blogsSteven Krause, who teaches English at Eastern Michigan University, weighs in on why writers should (not) blog.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4229,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4229","url_meta":{"origin":2680,"position":5},"title":"Pentagram Pizza for May 18th","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 Twelve words for for bloggers, pointed towards people in the medical professions, but likely appropriate for academia as well. \u2022 While we are in the workplace, some thoughts from a Psychology Today article on why \"diversity training\" is a waste of time. Or why good manners are better than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/pentagrampizza2-126x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2680"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2683,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2680\/revisions\/2683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}