This post in particular reminds me how important it is to be clear and pare things down. When trying to learn PHP programming a few years back, I went through no less than 6-8 books in an attempt to wrap my head around the basic concepts & syntax of the language, but just couldn’t get over the hump.

On the verge of despair, yet unable to overcome my intense curiosity and inherent stubbornness, I came across an author named David Powers and decided to give it one last try. Voilà—suddenly everything made sense! I was thunderstruck at how simple & obvious he made even the most complex concepts seem, and how he did so with few words.

Looking back, Mr. Powers wasn’t writing about anything that hadn’t been covered in all the other books, yet somehow his words seemed to magically make order out of chaos and illuminate things that had previously insisted on lurking annoyingly in the shadowy nether lands just beyond my reach.

After reading this post, I think what you’ve said must be the key: He must have sat back carefully distilling his words until all that remained was the essence of what needed to be conveyed. I probably don’t have to tell you that he now has almost rock star status amongst fledgling PHP programmers, and his new books fly off the shelves the minute they are released (if you can even get them—the pre-order queues for them at Amazon are usually long). His ability to write well has not only increased his income, but also mine by enabling me to expand the skills I can offer.

Anyway, all this was just my verbose way of saying: Well done!

Digi

You are my first comment ever! I’m honored. And it’s true that setting specific goals is excellent for those who have written at least a little in the past. My methodology here is for those who have never ever put “thought to page” before - sort of the training wheels of writing. You’re more of the “transitioning to ten-speed” territory.

And yeah, I’ll concede the “his intentions” phrase was a bit overtelling. But I was 16 years old, and I’ve gotten a lot better.

A lot (flexing pencil muscle) better.

As I continue on this thread of thought, I think I may have to create a whole new section called “writing for decent writers” and another called “writing for smash-out fantabulous writers” And I’ll cite you as my muse o’ the day!.

In the “Don’t try to write” section, that’s great advice. Writers write. Non-writers, well, are non-writers. But I’d offer that rather than writing until one is tired, it can also work to set specific goals. When I was working on my novel, I would do 3 pages a day. If I went over, fine (in fact, once I got into it, going over was easy), but I couldn’t stop until I did at least 3 pages. Having a tangible goal can work wonders. I went from stagnating on my novel, to actually finishing the first draft and it was all because rather than just telling myself I need to sit down and write every day, I actually set a page goal.

In your “Dumb in your mouth, dumb on paper” example, to tell you the truth, the “His intentions are clear” bit almost makes me cringe, too. If his intentions are so clear, then you don’t need to tell us that! But hey, that’s just me being *really* nit-picky. ; )

– Robert