Meek or bold, a good beginning achieves clarity. A sensible line threads through the prose; things follow one another with literal logic or with the logic of feeling. Clarity isn't an exciting virtue, but it is a virtue always, and especially at the beginning of a piece of prose ... With good writing, the reader enjoys a doubleness of experience, succumbing to the story or the ideas while also enjoying the writer's artfulness.
- Tracey Kidder [Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction]
I perused the opening pages of Kidder's book in the midst of my campus' bookstore. His advice is at once succinct and eloquent. I succumbed to his ideas.
I added Good Prose to my reading list. As I continue to hone my writing skills, I am seeking to clarify my ideas in order to effectively convey meaning to my audience. I am learning that brevity does not always correlate to clarity. And as poetic as descriptive prose may sound, I must take care not to burden my readers with baroque passages. My mother's mantra reminds me to "simplify."
