Writing Advice from C.S. Lewis

On December 14, 1959, C.S. Lewis wrote to a young girl named Thomasine. Thomasine was assigned to write to a famous author for writing advice. The young girl chose C.S. Lewis, her favorite author. Lewis wrote Thomasine eight short nuggets of advice.

1. Turn off the Radio.

2. Read all the good books you can, and avoid nearly all magazines.

3. Always write (and read) with the ear, not the eye. You shd. hear every sentence you write as if it was being read aloud or spoken. If it does not sound nice, try again.

4. Write about what really interests you, whether it is real things or imaginary things, and nothing else. (Notice this means that if you are interested only in writing you will never be a writer, because you will have nothing to write about…)

5. Take great pains to be clear. Remember that though you start by knowing what you mean, the reader doesn’t, and a single ill-chosen word may lead him to a total misunderstanding. In a story it is terribly easy just to forget that you have not told the reader something that he needs to know–the whole picture is so clear in your own mind that you forget that it isn’t the same in his.

6. When you give up a bit of work don’t (unless it is hopelessly bad) throw it away. Put it in a drawer. It may come in useful later. Much of my best work, or what I think my best, is the re-writing of things begun and abandoned years earlier.

7. Don’t use a typewriter. The noise will destroy your sense of rhythm, which still needs years of training.

8. Be sure you know the meaning (or meanings) of every word you use.

   Playing By Ear

   Lewis valued the “sound and savour” of language and trusted his ears rather than relying on strict rules of composition.

   He listened to the writing and watched for “mystery” in the lines. Writing to his friend Arthur Greeves about looking up a poem, Lewis writes:

I at once looked up the poem ‘The Gift of Song’ which you mentioned, and I thoroughly agree with you. It has a beautiful dreamy movement and the sound follows the sense exactly; also, what is more it has that depth and mystery which a lyric should have if you are to read it again and again.”

On the value of savor and sound, Lewis writes to his father:

So far my readings both in Latin and Greek have been a pleasant surprise: I have forgotten less than I feared, and once I get the sound and savour of the language into my head by a spell of reading, composition should not come too hard either.

On trusting the sounds of language, Lewis writes to Arthur once more:

I am afraid I don’t know the difference between a final and consecutive clause in English or Latin!–I always do what sounds right in either, but of course you can’t begin that way.

Notes

Lewis, C. S.. The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume 3: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy, 1950 - 1963 (pp. 1108-1109). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.