E. B. White's Advice to Writers

An0maly · August 17, 2010, 9:38am

What do you do when you’re 17 years old, baffled by life, and certain only of your dream to become a professional writer? If you had been “Miss R” 35 years ago, you would have composed a letter to your favorite author, seeking his advice. And 35 years ago, you would have received this reply from E. B. White:

<pre><code>Dear Miss R—:

At seventeen, the future is apt to seem formidable, even depressing. You should see the pages of my journal circa 1916.

You asked me about writing–how I did it. There is no trick to it. If you like to write and want to write, you write, no matter where you are or what else you are doing or whether anyone pays any heed. I must have written half a million words (mostly in my journal) before I had anything published, save for a couple of short items in St. Nicholas. If you want to write about feelings, about the end of summer, about growing, write about it. A great deal of writing is not “plotted”–most of my essays have no plot structure, they are a ramble in the woods, or a ramble in the basement of my mind. You ask, “Who cares?” Everybody cares. You say, “It’s been written before.” Everything has been written before.

I went to college but not direct from high school; there was an interval of six or eight months. Sometimes it works out well to take a short vacation from the academic world–I have a grandson who took a year off and got a job in Aspen, Colorado. After a year of skiing and working, he is now settled into Colby College as a freshman. But I can’t advise you, or won’t advise you, on any such decision. If you have a counselor at school, I’d seek the counselor’s advice. In college (Cornell), I got on the daily newspaper and ended up as editor of it. It enabled me to do a lot of writing and gave me a good journalistic experience. You are right that a person’s real duty in life is to save his dream, but don’t worry about it and don’t let them scare you. Henry Thoreau, who wrote Walden, said, “I learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” The sentence, after more than a hundred years, is still alive. So, advance confidently. And when you write something, send it (neatly typed) to a magazine or a publishing house. Not all magazines read unsolicited contributions, but some do. The New Yorker is always looking for new talent. Write a short piece for them, send it to The Editor. That’s what I did forty-some years ago. Good luck.

Sincerely,

E. B. White
(Letters of E. B. White, Revised Edition, edited by Martha White, HarperCollins, 2006).

</code></pre>

Source: [Writers</a> on Writing - E.B. White Quotations on Writing - The Writer’s Craft](<a href=“http://grammar.about.com/od/writersonwriting/a/ebwonwriting.htm]Writers”>E.B. White on Writing)

College essay writing involves writing with a purpose. You have a restricted topic, and your goal is to highlight yourself by conveying your message. I realized, however, that many students identify the traits they wish to display, then force their words to reflect that.

Frankly, that’s a terrible idea. I advocate establishing a list of traits you wish to display. I also advocate writing an essay that reflects those traits. I do not, however, advocate doing both together.

If you write an essay with a goal in mind, then you will not write an excellent essay. What I advocate is that you write the essay naturally, and then establish what it reflects about you. After that, you may edit and incorporate ideas to display your talents.

While Mr. White’s piece is about writing because of an interest in writing, his advice still holds. Your essay doesn’t have to have a complex plot or be the most original thing ever written. It must simply reflect who you are. If you start with a conscious goal of reflecting yourself, you will fail. If you choose a natural approach of writing for the pleasure of it, you will succeed.

Here’s another essay by E. B. White called “Once more to the Lake.” It could be categorized as an answer to a “how do you spend your summer?” question, but his essay would’ve gotten him accepted anywhere :)

[Once</a> More to the Lake](<a href=“http://www.moonstar.com/~acpjr/Blackboard/Common/Essays/OnceLake.html]Once”>http://www.moonstar.com/~acpjr/Blackboard/Common/Essays/OnceLake.html)

digmedia · August 17, 2010, 9:52am

One thousand percent agree!!!

Ghostt · August 17, 2010, 10:30am

Once More to the Lake truly is a great piece! Reading essays and stories by real masters is both more enriching and more beneficial than obsessively devouring college essays.

Engineerjw · August 17, 2010, 10:36am

I learned this lesson as I was writing. It’s definitely true that it’s better to write an essay and then try to analyze it as opposed to writing the essay with a certain message in mind.

An0maly · August 17, 2010, 10:39am

I used to think so, but now I disagree. Reading works by White and his ilk show you the masterful side of writing, but college essays show you the opposite side of a writer trying to improve his craft. Most of those kids will never be professional writers but it’s still enjoyable to see how a person can write his heart out through words, regardless of what kind of writer they are.

Ghostt · August 17, 2010, 10:55am

Oh, I’m not trying to belittle the honest efforts of high-school kids, I was one myself. There is a worth to genuine writing that good writing doesn’t necessarily have.

But I still prefer the latter because it teaches me how to make honesty sound compelling.

glassesarechic · August 17, 2010, 9:18pm

Oy, so much easier said than done.

nick_scheu · August 17, 2010, 9:45pm

Speaking of E.B. White, if anyone has not yet read The Elements of Style, I highly recommend you do so. I’d pick up a physical copy (the illustrated version with the dog on the cover is quite nice), as the versions online do not contain the more recent revisions—some don’t even include White’s.

E. B. White's Advice to Writers

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