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| 'Young writers often suppose that style is a garnish for the meat of prose, a sauce by which a dull dish is made palatable. Style has no such separate entity; it is nondetachable, unfilterable. The beginner should approach style warily, realising that it is an expression of self and should turn resolutely away from all devices that are popularly thought to indicate style - all mannerisms, tricks, adornments.' - EB White Samuel Johnson or Ben Johnson (can't remember which and haven't been able to trace it) was more blunt: 'Young writers should go through their work and cross out all the good bits.' Which brings us back to planing down sentences, or editing. |
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