Sublime

WANG P’ANG says, “Everything changes into its opposite. Beginning follows end without cease. But people think everything is either beautiful or ugly. How absurd! Only the sage knows that the ten thousand ages are the same, that nothing is gained or lost.

“You shouldn’t be talking about a new

The dialogue itself should tell the whole story. Your tags should be invisible.” “How do I make them invisible?” asked Junior. “Well, first of all, you don’t always need to use one.” “Ah.” “And when you do use one, only use two verbs: said or asked. No adverbs.” “That’s it?” “That’s it.”

Stick with the action—avoid the abstraction, that is the rule. When you prepare your argument, ask, "Am I abstracting or am I showing and telling as we once learned to do as children?" Remember, the power of the story is in its ability to create action, and to avoid abstraction. When someone abstracts in his argument to me, it requires me

When people speak in a very elaborate and sophisticated way, they either want to tell a lie, or to admire themselves. You should not believe such people. Good speech is always clear, clever, and understood by all. Simplicity is the consequence of refined emotions.

Simplex sigillum veri: the naked truth must be so simple and comprehensible that one can impart it to all in its true form without any admixture of myth and fable (a pack of lies)--in other words, without masking it as religion.

The trouble with too much talk is that it can constrict that valuable freedom and flexibility.

The second suggestion Vonnegut makes in “How to Write with Style” is “Do not ramble.” I won’t, as he said he wouldn’t, “ramble on about that.” The third is “Keep it simple.”