Good writing often flows easiest from life's experiences

Want advice about writing well? Here's what some successful writers have to offer.

When you walk through a bookstore, in town or at the airport, you are likely to see, staring at you, at least one title by the novelist James Patterson.

His books have sold more than 400 million copies. He sometimes has had more than one of the top 10 books on the New York Times best seller list at the same time.

Patterson has been criticized for having co-authors do most of the writing for many of his books; he reportedly sets the story lines.

But his description of what he does write sets a standard all writers can embrace:

"When I write, I have the sense that there's one person sitting across from me, and I don't want them to get up until I'm finished."

That's another way of saying, "Write the way you talk." When friends ask how your day went, you don't get all literary on them. You have no trouble telling them, conversationally, so try writing that way.

When you start to write, do not strive for perfection; just pour words onto the page. The clearest writing does not emerge in a first draft, but in rewriting — in second, third and fourth drafts, where craft shows up.

Good writing involves far more than words and correct grammar. Here's wisdom from the writer Sholem Asch:

"Writing comes more easily when you have something to say."

And from Henry David Thoreau: "How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live."

The more we experience and observe in our lives, the better equipped we are to write in clear, concrete terms, rather than in the kind of empty abstractions that come to us in too many political and business communications.

None of this advice insists that writers adopt a standard style. Consider this bit of self-revelation by Nora Ephron:

"I had been working as a journalist for nearly eight years before I could easily write in the voice that I turned out to have."

Twin Cities writing coach Gary Gilson can be reached at writebetterwithgary.com.