Tony Rossiter explores great words from great writers
If you’re writing a letter or (more likely these days) sending an email or text message to a friend, you’ll probably write what comes immediately into your head. Sometimes that kind of spontaneous, ‘stream of consciousness’ writing can get your creative writing juices flowing in a way that would be constrained by a more considered and structured approach.
But if you’re writing for publication, you need to organise your thoughts and to express them as logically and succinctly as you can. Writing concisely is not easy. Paradoxically, as Blaise Pascal suggested, it often requires more care and takes more time than writing a longer, spur-of-the-moment piece.