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I got these tips from www.Desiringgod.org; they got it from C.S. Lewis, the writer of The Chronicles of Narnia and a host of other notable Christian books. C.S Lewis is renowned as a profound Christian thinker. I believe that it is wise for us to hear his advice on this issue which I know all of us as youth (scholaaz, young workers, thinkers, poets and all song writers) can relate to.

C. S. Lewis’ advice to children on writing is good advice to anybody on writing or talking:

1. Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.
2. Always prefer the clean direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.
3. Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose.”
4. In writing, don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the things you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us the thing is “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve 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. Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

(Originally published in Letters to Children, letter from June 26, 1956. Quoted in Wayne Martindale and Jerry Root in The Quotable Lewis, p. 623.)

Andrew Wildes This article was written by Andrew Wildes and added 6 months, 3 weeks ago to perspective-guidance.
Andrew Wildes says... Andrew Wildes has a passion to see radically God-centered yutes be raised up all across Jamaica and the world, to shake the foundations of their generation for God. He is a director of Fiwivoice.com.