C. S. Lewis - On Writing (and Writers): A Miscellany of Advice and Opinions

Contents

C. S. L EWIS PUBLISHED NEARLY FORTY BOOKS IN HIS lifetime, most of which are still in print. Apart from his Narnia Chronicles, which have sold over one hundred million copies, Lewis distinguished himself in many genresscience fiction, literary criticism, theology, memoir, and poetry. So when Lewis took time to comment on the art of writing, his observations are well worth considering.

As he became increasingly renowned in his later years, Lewis was inundated with letters on just about every topic imaginablefrom spiritual direction to Spinoza to spelling. He did his best to answer as many letters as he could, though this became an onerous task. Lewis explained to one correspondent that he had answered thirty-five letters that day; on a different occasion, he noted that he had spent fourteen hours that day catching up on his correspondence (CL 2, 509; 3, 1153).

Lewis was a diligent reader of writing samples submitted to him, both from close friends and from complete strangers. He offered not only general evaluative remarks, but also comments on specific lines and particular word choices. Sometimes he replied by offering a quick primer on the art of writing. To a little girl from Florida he wrote, Dont use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. Here, Lewis goes on to say that the writing should delight readers, not just label an event delightful; or it should make them feel terror, not just tell them that an event was terrifying. He says that emotional labeling is really just a way of asking readers, Please will you do my job for me? (CL 3, 766).

Lewis recommended these same principles to many other correspondents, as well as in his published books. He frequently emphasized that ones writing should be simple, clear, concrete, and jargon-free. He also reiterated that one should show, not tell, that writers should capture sensory impressions and evoke emotions instead of simply offering an emotional label for what the reader is supposed to feel.

Lewis also believed that one should always write for the ear as well as for the eye. He recommended that a piece of prose be read aloud to make sure that its sounds reinforce its sense. In discussing Greek and Latin texts, he said it wasnt enough to work out the literal meaning of the lines; the translator should also recognize the sound and savor of the language (CL 1, 422).

Most certainly, Lewis felt the same way about English prose. To his friend Arthur Greeves, for example, he defined style as the art of expressing a given thought in the most beautiful words and rhythms of words. To illustrate, he offered first this phrase: When the constellations which appear at early morning joined in musical exercises and the angelic spirits loudly testified to their satisfaction. Then he gave the actual phrase as it appears in the King James Bible: When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy (CL 1, 333).

Lewiss advice on writing is worth studying partly because he was so eminently successful in practicing what he preached. Lewiss reputation shows no sign of diminishing more than a half century after his death in 1963. His Narnia Chronicles continue as perennial bestsellers, and they have been hailed in The Oxford Companion to Childrens Literature as the most sustained achievement in fantasy for children by a 20th-century author. Lewiss books of popular theology continue to enjoy widespread influence and appeal. And, to many readers, turning to most contemporary critics after reading Lewiss scholarly work is like (in his own phrase) the difference between diamonds and tinsel (CL 1, 247).

Lewis was arguably one of the most lucid and readable prose stylists of the modern era. Since he would, in Chaucers phrase, gladly teach the art of writing, it is a wise reader who would gladly learn.

In referencing letters written by Lewis, I draw from the three volumes of The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, which I abbreviate as such: CL 1, CL 2, and CL 3.

DAVID C. DOWNING

Codirector of the Marion E. Wade Center

at Wheaton College in Illinois

A DVICE TO A YOUNG WRITER

You describe your Wonderful Night very well. That is, you describe the place and the people and the night and the feeling of it all, very wellbut not the thing itselfthe setting but not the jewel. And no wonder! Wordsworth often does just the same. His Prelude (youre bound to read it about ten years hence. Dont try it now, or youll only spoil it for later reading) is full of moments in which everything except the thing itself is described. If you become a writer youll be trying to describe the thing all your life: and lucky if, out of dozens of books, one or two sentences, just for a moment, come near to getting it across....

1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldnt mean anything else.
2. Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Dont implement promises, but keep them.
3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean more people died, dont say mortality rose.
4. In writing, dont use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was terrible, describe it so that well be terrified. Dont say it was delightful: make us say delightful when weve read the description. You see, all those words, (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, Please will you do my job for me.
5. Dont use words too big for the subject. Dont say infinitely when you mean very: otherwise youll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

Letter to Joan Lancaster, June 26, 1956 (CL 3)

T O ANOTHER YOUNG WRITER

It is very hard to give any general advice about writing. Heres my attempt.

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 should 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 doesnt, 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 knowthe whole picture is so clear in your own mind that you forget that it isnt the same in his.
6. When you give up a bit of work, dont (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 rewriting of things begun and abandoned years earlier.
7. Dont 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.

Letter to Thomasine, December 14, 1959 (CL 3)

A GOOD STORY DOESNT NEED A POINT

Im not quite sure what you meant about silly adventure stories without any point. If they are silly, then having a point wont save them. But if they are good in themselves, and if by a point you mean some truth about the real world which one can take