Here are some I like:
10. Cut big, then small. Prune the big limbs, then shake out the dead leaves.
13. Play with words, even in serious stories. Choose words the average writer avoids but the average reader understands.
17. Riff on the creative language of others. Make word lists, free-associate, be surprised by language.
21. Know when to back off and when to show off. When the topic is most serious, understate; when least serious, exaggerate.
25. Learn the difference between reports and stories. Use one to render information, the other to render experience.
43. Read for both form and content. Examine the machinery beneath the text.
46. Take interest in all crafts that support your work. To do your best, help others do their best.
On the whole, though, I found it a bit too blueprinty for my taste – the best part of writing for me is being surprised by where I end up. But the idea of a list of writing “tools not rules,” that I can get behind.
Here are some I would add:
-- Don’t write what you know. Write what you love. Write what you can’t stop thinking about.
-- Don’t hesitate to take a sidebar. The most interesting writing often happens tangential to the main point.
-- Focus on interestingness, not coherence.
-- Write about ideas, not opinions.
-- Except for very rare occasions, don’t use words you have to look up in the thesaurus.
-- Save the intro paragraph for last. I don’t often know what I’m writing about until I’m finished.
Okay so that ended up being more rule-y than tool-y. So sue me.
Here are some others from or inspired by Omaha’s Oracle:
Tell stories. Reading a Berkshire annual report is like sitting across a booth in a diner with a great conversationalist possessed of both intelligence and insatiable curiosity.
Use vivid language.
Talk about people. It’s one thing to say, as almost everyone does, that business is about people. It’s another thing entirely to portray those people fully fleshed and full of foibles.
Be generous with humour. Every Berkshire annual brims with jokes (including some groaners), drollery, and wit.
Get to the point. “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful,” Buffett writes. That’s an entire business philosophy in twelve words.
Let your enthusiasm show.
Write with a specific person in mind. (For his annual reports, he pretends that he’s talking to his sisters.)
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A recent, unrelated gem from Buffett about how to end the deficit in 5 minutes:
You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of congress are ineligible for reelection.
