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At the simplest level, writing well is about grammar, punctuation, and even spelling. Using an analogy of a painter, grammar and punctuation are like the painter's ability to control the brush and make strokes accurately. Spelling is the painter's ability merely to hold a brush. These are not artistic issues; they are issues of craft and gross physical concerns.

It is easy to find resources on grammar, punctuation, and spelling, so even though they fit well within the topic of this essay, I will skip them. The rules are just so numerous that they would easily overwhelm the rest of what I have to say.

Just above the level of grammar is the issue of sentence structure. Correct grammar gives you an enormous number of ways to say any one thing and it is up to you to choose one. You should favor the active voice and try to make your sentences short.

Try to put the most important words of your sentence at the end. A sentence with that structure is called a periodic sentence and it is effective because a reader will tend to remember the last thing he read.

For more advice on sentence structure and many other issues, read "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White.

Paragraphs

Just above the level of the sentence is the issue of paragraphs. The paragraphs of prose are how a painter arranges subjects on the canvas. You put space between your words just as a painter might separate the parts of an image. Without enough spaces in the right places, you will be cluttering your pose.

Each paragraph must be a single idea represented wholly. You get to explain one idea within each paragraph; when you move onto the next paragraph you have to move onto another idea. Readers expect this organization from prose and they will be confused by any other organization.

An idea is not an indivisible physical object like a table-tennis ball; every idea is made out of many smaller ideas. It is up to you to decide whether your paragraphs represent big ideas or small ideas. At one level, the entire subject of your prose is a single idea and it could therefore be a single paragraph, but there is a limit to how much a reader can take in without a break.

If the reader rests while in the middle of reading a paragraph then his position within the paragraph is lost. He will have to scan the paragraph again to find his place to resume reading. This is tedious so a reader will not want to stop reading until the end of the paragraph, and if the paragraph is too long then you will tire your reader. Therefore, there is a maximum length to a good paragraph. I believe paragraphs should not be much longer than twice the length of the ones found here.

When you find your paragraphs are getting too long, you are must break up the idea of that paragraph into smaller ideas and give each its own paragraph.

When a paragraph is near the large side of the size range, it is especially important to ensure that the paragraph explains a single idea. While consumed by a long paragraph, the reader will sometimes search for the idea of the paragraph to aid in understanding. If readers cannot easily see the idea, they will be mildly annoyed and wonder why you are forcing them to slog through a jumble of unrelated ideas without giving them any breaks.

Despite all the dangers of long paragraphs, it is not safe to make your paragraphs short. The reader demands that everything he reads be important or else he will lose interest in your prose. It is not possible to make every sentence important, but you may be able to fool the reader by making your paragraphs important. This means that you must keep your ideas large and not divide them too many times.

When you have something important to say, especially if you are sure the reader will know that it is important, never hesitate to make a paragraph just for that idea. The reader will be annoyed if you bury an important idea inside a larger paragraph.

When a character says something in a story, it is always important. You know from life that once words have passed your lips, you cannot take them back. Each quote moves the plot and shifts the way characters feel about each other or at least advances the conversation. It is normal to have each quote be its own paragraph or to combine the quote with whatever is happening while the character is speaking.

If you feel something within a paragraph is more important than the rest, but not important enough to make its own paragraph, then put it at the beginning or end of the paragraph. This avoids burying it and directs the reader's attention to it without being so bold as to declare it important. Put your idea at the beginning of the paragraph if it highlights the overall idea of the paragraph and put it at the end if it is a smaller idea that you want the reader to remember.

Choosing Your Details

I presume that you already know the topic of your prose; I will not try to help you with that. It falls nicely under the topic of this essay, but there is so much that could be said about it that it would overwhelm the rest.

Once you have the topic and you are ready to divide your big idea into smaller ideas for your paragraphs, you have reached the point where you need to decide which details to share with the reader. You do not need to tell the reader everything; some ideas should be merely outlined or skipped entirely. The choice of what to share and what to skip is the most fundamental artistic decision that a writer makes.

When someone says, "show, don't tell," they are talking about this. Showing means giving the reader enough details of something so that he can easily imagine it. Telling means explicitly explaining the importance of something. "The painting was a masterpiece," is telling in this context, while showing would be describing the visual details of the painting. If someone tells you to "show, don't tell" about the painting, they are saying you should provide more visual details of the painting and leave the reader to draw his own conclusions about the quality of the painting.

The reader does not like to be told what to think or what opinions to have. When you make a bold statement, the reader will instinctively expect you to justify your statement or else the reader will rebel and avoid agreeing with you just to spite you. If you tell the reader that a painting is a masterpiece you must quickly prove to the reader that it is true because this is a matter of opinion where the reader might disagree with you.

You are safe as long as you stick to telling the reader about the events and sensations of a fictional situation because the reader knows you are the authority. The reader has no experience with the people and places you are writing about, so he will not doubt you.

Your authority does not have a soft and fuzzy border; its limits are strict and clear. It is dangerous to step even one word beyond your authority over events and sensations. Do not tell what a character is thinking because the reader may have his own opinions on that matter and is likely to doubt your authority. You do not have telepathy; the reader knows this and will rebel if he sees you pretending that you can read your character's mind.

Do not tell the reader that something is beautiful, stunning, awe-inspiring, or ugly. The reader knows what the reader likes and you cannot change that. Do not say anything that will force you to justify yourself because that means that the reader has doubted your authority for a moment. This is why people will tell you to "show, don't tell."

If you must say something which the reader might doubt, then justify it before you say it. This way you stand the best chance of keeping the reader in respect for your authority. If you are writing fiction you will never have to resort to such tactics because there is never a need to say anything that the reader might doubt.

If you are writing nonfiction or your are writing fiction involving real people or places, then all you have to do to prevent doubt is to get your facts right. Readers who know what you are talking about will instantly agree with you, and readers who do not know will naturally assume you are right.

The real problem is that you want the reader to have certain opinions and yet people tell you not to tell the reader what you want him to think. The good guys are good and the bad guys are bad; you need the reader to believe it for the drama of the story to be effective, but you are forbidden from saying it because it is an opinion beyond your strict authority. This is the writer's motivation for showing instead of telling.

When you show the reader something, you influence the reader to have certain opinions without overstepping your authority. The reader will not doubt you if you detail the bad things that a bad person does, while explicitly calling that person bad would be counter-productive. If you describe the appearance of something well enough, you may even be able to convince the reader that it is beautiful, while saying that it is beautiful would never be convincing.

You do not have to be direct when showing the reader things. It is extremely difficult to show beauty to the reader by describing the beautiful object, but you can show the reader what he should be thinking by showing the reader what other people are thinking. Remember not to tell the reader the thoughts of other characters, but you are within your authority to quote characters on their opinions. If someone in your prose says that a painting is beautiful, then it encourages the reader to share that opinion without risking your authority.

Deciding What Is Important

Even if you have mastered showing and telling and instinctively know the boundaries of your authority over the reader, that is only a small part of choosing your details. Do not run wild showing the reader things simply because you have the authority; give the reader what he wants to know.

You may hear that the details you choose should be important to your work as a whole, but remember that the reader is not reading your work as a whole. Your reader is reading what you are writing at this very moment and now is the time when you must please your reader. Your goal is to follow your reader's thoughts and provide those details that your reader is pondering just as they cross his mind.

When you have a visual description to write, put the thing you are describing in front of you and try to note where your eyes go. You look at what you want to see and this way you can judge what details to give and in what order to give them. At first glance you know what sort of object you are looking at, so start your paragraph with that. If you are looking at a person, your eyes will probably go to his or her face unless there is something extraordinary going on. Remember that the last thing in a paragraph will stand out for the reader.

It is impossible to show the reader the things you need him to think while keeping all your details relevant to the story. You may want to show that a character is happy and excitable, but it is impossible for every smile and giggle to be important to the plot. If you try to advance the plot with everything that you say, you will end up with an outline rather than a story.

The following are the rules of the game:

The goal is to excite the reader as much as possible.

Reading is boring. The more reading the reader has to do, the less excited he will be.

The plot is exciting. Everything that advances the plot or is clearly relevant will excite the reader.

Details make the plot more exciting. As long as you are showing, details will make the reader care more about the plot and increase the excitement gain from each plot advancement.

According to these rules, good prose starts by doing some showing that does not advance the plot. This showing just increases the potency of the plot, then we hit the reader with some plot to raise the excitement level. The entire work will be a sequence of plot advancements spread out between stretches of minor details. The minor details give the plot its effectiveness, but each detail requires reading and so the excitement level will drop until the reader reaches the next bit of plot.

There are ways to cheat in this game because the plot is not the only way to excite the reader. Some details are awesome and the reader will appreciate them for their own value independent of the rest of the story. Science fiction and fantasy can most easily make use of this effect since there are few awesome details in the mundane world. Sexual suggestiveness and clever wording are also fun ways to cheat.

Showing Your Characters

When you write prose about people it is critical that the reader feels something towards the people. You need to use details to give the reader opinions about what should happen to the people so that the reader will care about what does happen to them. If you have not formed those opinions then no amount of plot will excite the reader.

People tend to be opinionated. They form opinions easily about everything they encounter, so it should not take much to cause opinions. You can then use your plot to create drama by going against the opinions of your readers.

The difference between good drama and bad drama is in how quickly and how strongly you can cause opinions to form. If you use a lot of showing to create the opinions then the opinions must be that much stronger. The ideal would be to create strong opinions in only a few words.

Humor works in a similar manner, but it is far more complicated. In drama you make events go against your reader's opinions of what should happen, but in humor you must make events suddenly go against the reader's expectations of what will happen. The details of how to make humor work are beyond me.

Often you will be able to use the plot itself to make the reader form opinions about the characters, but do not rely totally on that. Readers need more details than just the plot to appreciate a character; gestures, facial expressions, manners of speaking, and appearance all strongly affect the reader's opinion of a character.

Once you have established your reader's opinions of your characters, you will be able to devote more details to other things that will enhance the excitement of the plot in other ways. When a detail is neither about a character nor relevant to the plot, it is called atmosphere.