. . .
This is the second part of a three-part series on writing about music. Part one discussed the necessity of reading in order to improve one’s writing. This part discusses how to have interesting things to say about music.
Note that I am not setting out a “right” way to think. I favor flexible approaches to problem-solving, and writing about music is a problem to solve: how to talk intelligently about music, yet keep your reader’s attention.
I’ve written about music for six years, and I didn’t have interesting things to say until approximately year four. Hopefully, you won’t take so long to become an interesting writer. Here are 10 tips to help make that happen.
. . .
10 TIPS FOR THINKING ABOUT MUSIC
. . .
10. Opinion doesn’t matter; insight does.
One of the Internet’s worst faults is that it atomizes attention spans. People engage in anonymous hit-and-run attacks of “This rules/sucks”, and believe that worthy of effort. No need even to email friends now; just “like” their Facebook ramblings!
Unfortunately, “rules/sucks” is the level on which 99% of humanity operates. It’s worthless except to bean counters. Richard Schickel, a film critic, wrote a brilliant article on criticism that I try to heed. He said:
Opinion – thumbs up, thumbs down – is the least important aspect of reviewing. Very often, in the best reviews, opinion is conveyed without a judgmental word being spoken, because the review’s highest business is to initiate intelligent dialogue about the work in question, beginning a discussion that, in some cases, will persist down the years, even down the centuries.
This quote contains an important point: saying that something rules or sucks is redundant, because the writer’s tone will convey that message anyway.
I would rather disagree with a well-reasoned, well-written review than agree with a poorly-reasoned, poorly-written one. The former educates, and the latter wastes time. Agreement is overrated, anyway. A roomful of people agreeing makes for terrible conversation.
. . .
9. Avoid the consumer guide mentality.
That is, unless you are paid to be a consumer guide. In this piece – another great guide for budding critics – Leonard Pierce points out that being a consumer guide is really the only way music writers make money now. Consumers – not readers, not people, but consumers – just want the star rating so they know what to buy/download. They could care less if the writer has something interesting to say. Again, this level of discourse only benefits bean counters. The world needs more readers and fewer consumers. Help make that happen.
. . .
8. A description is not a review.
I see many album reviews that go like this: “X album falls in Y genre, with influences from Z genre. It’s good for Y genre, with fast parts and slow parts and some medium parts. It runs a little long, but fans of the genre should pick it up anyway”.
Not only does this fall victim to the consumer guide mentality, it’s also boring as hell. Additionally, people now can stream and download music to hear for themselves. They don’t need critics anymore to tell them what music sounds like. Of course, descriptions are useful to support arguments, or to help establish the field of inquiry. But a description alone is not an inquiry, and, as I discuss below, inquiry is crucial to writing about music.
. . .
7. When discussing music, there is no such thing as objectivity.
Every accusation of biased reviews is true. That’s because every person comes with biases: environment, personal history, sensory organs. No one else has my personal history and my ears. Together those things provide an inescapable subjective framework through which I perceive things. One could be objective if one were a robot – and that might be true of some writers – but luckily most people, even music writers, have personalities.
. . .
6. However, recognize your biases.
A bias is a prejudice, something that affects your judgment. Any sort of predilection is a bias. Someone who’s a die-hard death metal fan may be the worst person to review death metal – because he’s a die-hard fan. He’s pre-disposed to like it, he may not think critically about it, and if his only reference points are other death metal records, his writing will likely be coddling and cliquish.
One of the strongest biases is personal association. Do not accept money to pass judgment on a musician whom you know. That is a great way to jeopardize both that relationship and your professional integrity.
. . .
5. “Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people”. – Eleanor Roosevelt
This correlates with the sports maxim, “Play the ball, not the player”. One of my greatest frustrations regarding Varg Vikernes is that the very mention of his name yields kneejerk reactions (see “rules/sucks” discussion above), yet his music does not reflect the controversial aspects of his private life. Every Varg Vikernes discussion devolves to the same thing: “Burzum rules!/ Vikernes is scum!”. It’s all quite tiresome. No one shares anything, no one learns anything, yet many mouths flap.
. . .
4. Analogize to other areas of life.
A good writer can make anything interesting. A bad writer can make anything uninteresting. I would rather read, say, a New York Times article on Peruvian cooking, something that usually doesn’t concern me, than a typical blog post about metal, something that concerns me daily. This is because the NYT writer likely knows how to ease the reader into unfamiliar territory and point out sights along the way.
So Peruvian cooking is interesting because it’s a process. Many other things are processes, including making music. (In an interview, Carlos Santana once compared playing a live set to serving a meal.) Draw inspiration from everywhere. Compare music to other artforms, like photography, painting, and cinema, and even seemingly unrelated topics like athletics or urban planning. Different people often solve diferent problems using the same tools. Find those connections, and you’ll draw from a much richer set of information than genre-specific references.
. . .
3. Learn the nuts and bolts of music.
You don’t have to become a musician. After all, if you were truly a musician, you would not be a music writer. But learn what constitutes Western music (since that’s likely what you’ll be writing about). Learn some music theory. Try to play the drums. You will have much more respect for musicians once you discover that you can’t do what they do. You wouldn’t trust a car reviewer who doesn’t know how engines work. Likewise, don’t trust a music reviewer who can’t tell you how music works.
. . .
2. Determine the essence of the music.
This is my main inquiry when I write about music. What makes something what it is? Often it’s not what’s obvious. Often it’s a little detail that sums up the whole. For Tombs, that might be Mike Hill’s moan. For Repulsion, it might be Scott Carlson’s emphatic vocal patterns. Drill down and find the whatness of things. Sure, Kill ‘Em All is the tipping point between NWOBHM and thrash. But it’s much more interesting and insightful to say that Kill ‘Em All is one of the purest blasts of adolescent energy ever recorded. Once you establish that idea, adolescence, you can go places with it. Simply discussing NWOBHM and thrash leads one to Wikipedia.
. . .
1. Seek to refract.
Abandon the idea of being an authority on your subject. That is arrogant and likely futile. Someone else will always know more than you. Instead, embrace being a transparent vessel for ideas stemming from your subject. The inquiry should start, not stop with you. As music inspired you to write, so should your writing inspire others to think.
. . .
I imagine a fictional world where every terrible review penned about metal is beholden to these guidelines. I do love the music but man alive there is an unavoidable and substantial dearth of intelligent writing on the subject.
Well said.
You suggest that opinion doesn’t matter, but I think (for blog-oriented writing, anyway) it is important to have an opinion, even if that opinion doesn’t matter in the overall scheme of things. There’s little point in writing if it doesn’t result in conversation, and you’re more likely to induce conversation by expressing an opinion one way or the other, than by carefully walking a non-committal line.
Of course, it’s important not to become a content-free provocateur – a trap that so many on the internet fall into…
Thanks for this, I feel like a better person already. Now if only I could write…
I’m gonna thank you for this before I even read it.
I did scan through quickly and read the part on objectivity. While I dont necessarily DISAGREE, I do feel differently about it.
I’m always most curious about something I’m biased AGAINST, and love learning to hear things from more of an objective viewpoint( or, just through someone else’e ears). This is easiest if I’m at a live show and can witness a whole crowd enjoying something I had previously not heard the appeal in.
I’d go so far as to say that by doing so, you grow as a person. I imagine in reviewing a record, being objective might defeat the purpose (b/c technically, everything would then get a good review…objectively speaking, there’s an ass for every seat).
But I dont really get the point of reading a negative review. I dont think someone is WRONG in not liking something…I’d just prefer to figure it out for myself
Another excellent article. I particularly liked point #4. I have rarely heard of the bands discussed on this site (my taste in metal is fairly mainstream, at least compared to yours), but I am always much more excited to see new posts here than I am about any of the other metal blogs I follow. I’m sure being able to get people interested in something they know nothing about is an invaluable skill, and one that it takes a long time to develop.
Oh, and thanks again for the recommendation of ‘On Writing’ in the last entry in this series. I’ve read it since, and it really was fantastic.
8. I find myself writing that way too often, in an effort to make it acceptable for inclusion on Metal Archives. Sometimes it’s a useful exercise to write this way, to force yourself to think about the details. But I think you’re right that it’s not the most useful way to write. I find writing this way suffocating at times. Your advice has encouraged me to move further away from that. If MA takes it, fine. If they don’t, that’s fine too.
5. I love the Eleanor Roosevelt quote. It reminds me of something Isaac Asimov wrote in the foreword to one of his books. He said there are two kinds of people, based on what they care about: idea people and people people. People people sometimes like each other, but nobody likes idea people–not even other idea people. I’ve always found myself to be an idea person.
3. I feel like I have exactly the right amount of music knowledge for this. I took a couple courses in music during college, learning the basics of guitar and piano, and played bass recreationally for a few years. Sometimes I read reviews that talk about a “diminished fifth” or whatever, and I have no idea what they’re talking about. But I think people know what a major chord sounds like.
2. I think I do this well. I hope so, anyway.
1. This is something I’ve never put much thought into. . . . So, is there any way you can convince the guys at Metal Archives of this? Yeah, right, like they could be convinced of anything. They definitely believe themselves the authorities.
Wow, got a couple more responses here while I was reading the post and writing mine. I think Matt Vogt is right. Anyway, what little I’ve read about blog writing says you should always have an opinion and say it, or nobody will care what you’re writing.
@ Crack: I think a really negative review is just as important as a really positive one, for different reasons. If you respect someone’s opinion, and you find that they hate it (and they explain why), then you can save yourself the time of figuring it out yourself.
FMA: I see your point, but no matter how much you respect someone’s opinion, it goes back to the original point of ‘everyone has there own biases.’
Quick example…I generally like/respect Decibel’s reviews, but I found one on the new Ken Mode that i really disagreed with and felt they were missing the point on. Its fine that they have that opinion, but if i had read that review first, it would certainly slant my first impression of the album. However…i heard the album before reading the review, and am therefore happy to be liking something.
I love the effort you put into your blog Cosmo. Thank you for sharing with us again. I will miss you greatly. I only hope us worms of Blogspot can do you justice.
This is an interesting piece. Cosmo, it was your reviews that made me realise that I shouldn’t write/review/blog until I had something really insightful to add. Too many sites are filled with writing that simply describes – usually not very well.
“Analogize to other areas of life.” this is vital. this makes a sterile piece on a memorable article. metal writing can really get old quickly. maybe that’s the essence of IO — not revolving into metal itself, but bringing life into it.
I think Cosmo is following his own advice when he wrote the header “Opinion doesn’t matter”. It’s a striking statement that makes you want to read further. He makes clear that explicitly stating your opinion is unnecessary because the tone of the review will make it redundant. The opinion will be revealed through insight.
This sucks!
@ Billoney
+1
Great post. These rules could really apply to writing about anything, really, and more writers would do well to abide by them (myself included, if I ever get back into web journalism). As it is, I’ll be steering folks to these posts for a while, I suspect.
Good advice! I’d never thought to break it down like that.
Great article, Cosmo. One of the reasons that I have kept coming back to IO for years now is the insight I have gained in your reviews. I find the open mindedness of this site and its visitors refreshing. I always tend to dismiss the bean counter approach to music journalism that you mention. Too many barriers rob people of so much enjoyment through music. Metal has always been my safe place, and the exposure it has given me to such a wide range of genres has taken me in many different areas outside of metal. It’s almost beyond explanation. Looking forward to more of these articles.
Ironically, stating “Opinion doesn’t matter; insight does” is an opinion.
It’s much easier to state an opinion then it is to bring about insight. However, I don’t think I would treat the two as mutually exclusive or as opposing ends on the same spectrum. Rather, stating an opinion can often open the door towards insight. Thus, the opinion is not the end of the discussion, but the beginning.
Perhaps more challenging is giving insight without giving opinion.
11. Get stoned, throw on Dark Side of the Moon and just start writing.
Matt Vogt – You’ve heard the saying about how everyone has an opinion. It’s almost impossible not to have an opinion about something once one intakes enough information about it. Even indifference is an opinion. So having an opinion is pretty much the lowest baseline possible for discourse. As Miskatonic implies, the challenge, then, is how to rise above the baseline.
Crack – The point is that whether a review is positive or negative doesn’t matter as much as if it’s thought-provoking and well-written.
Full Metal Attorney – Why do you want to be included on Metal Archives? That’s a strange aspiration.
Shanetera – Hey, I was a “worm” of Blogspot once, too! Ain’t no shame in that. Some fine writers use Blogspot as a platform.
Cool article. Opinions are funny thing. After working in a record store for 12 years I don’t put much stock into them when it comes to music. Out of curiosity, what does everyone think of the theory that ‘music journalists are just failed musicians or people who wish they were musically inclined’? I thought about music journalism once when I was in between bands/projects but always felt guilty/ignorant trying to put sound into words. Hats off to people who can do it with class.
12. Get stoned and edit what you’ve written on 11.
I find the most tedious reviews to read are ones with mid-range scores (5 to 7 out of 10). Definitely prefer the no-score system for IO, instead provoking some kind of question or discussion. The latest Slough Feg album review with the lyrics discussion in the comments comes to mind. That also illustrates your #2 point.
This post in particular should be read by all music listeners, let alone reviewers. Everyone’s a critic when listening to music, this is a good guide to just being respectfully open minded. When it all gets broken down to the eye (ear) of the beholder, to me anyways, there’s only 2 kinds of music; the kind I particularly enjoy listening to, and the kind I don’t particularly enjoy listening to (not meaning I dislike it or am not appreciative of it). No in between, there’s no such thing as music that is literally physically unlistenable.
rule 0. recognize you’re definitely not going to convey most of that in your first draft and accept it. re-writing is your best friend.
@Cosmo: perhaps I shouldn’t have said ‘have an opinion’; the issue is more that some writing, probably in an attempt to maximise objectivity, tries to avoid the communication of a personal opinion. While this may be appropriate for AMG, it’s missing the point of a blog. Sure, everyone has an opinion; what I believe to be important is that the opinion be expressed, which has the effect of bringing both sides out into discussion.
Oops, markup fail. Only ‘has’ should be italicised.
I agree with Andrew on the value of rewriting, though I think everyone eventually settles on their own method. I’ve known people who just write slowly, every sentence fitting into their master plan, essentially composed as a coherent, complete thought the first time they put it down.
Not so for me. I find I do best by just letting myself do it: write the way my brain wants to write without overthinking. Then I take a chainsaw to it, push parts around, let the structure fall into place as I find it, and clean up the language as I go. Not the quickest method, but for quality results I haven’t found a better one.
I agree, but an opinion is an opinion. In today’s 140 character world, nobody pays that much attention. Perhaps thats the problem. People read what they wanna read. I agree with Matt Vogel–the idea is to tease out both sides of an issue–but I have to go with whats presented to me–specifically artists–like Varg or Watain for example. Douchebags. No writing can cover that up. We’ve all seen profound and inspiring writing about artists of every stripe and form. And seen it’s opposite–it doesn’t mean I’m going to suddenly care about Glen Benton, Vince Neil or Miles Davis, and it detracts from their legacy, and colors their work negatively. I understand that they are polarizing figures, and metal is a polarizing music, but if you put negativity out there (to people, groups or nations) expect negativity back.
@ Invisible Oranges: It generates traffic, I guess. Now that I think of it, the better tactic is to generate a readership. Man, it’s tough to type after I’ve had a few (I wrote ahd a few first . . . firsts. My brain still works pretty well–funny thing about lawyers–but my fingers don’t.)
@ Jason: I hate the 140 character world. I refuse to read Twitter, and I never, ever text. The 140 character world is going to destroy albums and leave individually released singles in their place.
I agree with these guidelines. Describe the music and its effects as part of the ongoing influence of art on society; yes, that makes sense.
It’s important also however to realize that too much social commentary is as solipsistic as the sucks/rules dichotomy among individuals; in fact, it’s an extension of the same, and succumbs to marketing equally as rapidly.
Finally, it’s important to remember that choice of band to review also has a huge influence. With truly commercial music, or its “anti-commercial” commercial sideline, hipster/indie music, there is no content to write about, only re-arrangement of stale ideas in the hopes of being “unique” and “different” enough to be purchased by legions of low self-esteem burnouts.
Good piece.
Cosmo this is a fantastic piece. Not only is your advice extremely prudent, but the article itself is is both well-written and refreshingly humble. No wonder I keep coming back to this blog. As a writer and a musician I find a lot in here worth holding on to, and as someone who aspires to write about music professionally, I greatly appreciate the insight and inspiration.
I wonder about the stance on consumer guide mentality. Even with the decline of physical media and corporate support of bands like the scion festivals, I still feel it’s a very important to be able to dicscern one crucial thing for your readers: Is this product worth your time and money?
Bringing analogies into play, there was a phenomenal video game/media magazine called Play that existed for several years but just recently got cancelled. They spoke to theories and ideas of games as enthralling fun and their stature as works of high art, often in the same review or article. They even for a while experimented with a points versus bottom line summary rating system, wanting to make sure you understood all the rich intircacies and moods the designers wanted to convey, but making sure they got to the pont of whether or not that game was worth your hard earned $59.99. Why they ultimately shut down has more to do with the underhanded juggernaut of the gaming buisness than it does with their writing quality.
Truly, blogs like this and magzines like Decibel open me up to worlds of music I would have never found on my own, some becoming my favorites. Still, that magazine costs money, and I manage time reading this blog under a 12 hour work shift in a forward deployed area. I decided those are worth it. But with all the great music out there to buy and bands to go see, and considering the economy, who I decide to give my money to will always be an important factor. There’s only so many bucks in my wallet, and only so many hours in a day/days off I can us to see shows. I look to those sources not so much as a way to slant my opion but as a learned source of information that I can trust. Even if I do disagree or feel it wasn’t worth it on one particular band, the gudance given about other great music I have come to love allows me to feel confident in their words.
Yet another beyond brilliant post. You’re going to be sorely missed Cosmo… I wish I had half the tenacity and grace you do when it comes to writing. I’d love nothing more then to spend my time thinking about any kind of art form, let alone the one I hold closest to my heart, but unfortunately, bills and my lack of talent dictate otherwise.
Cheers my friend, you’re the Hemingway of metalblogers…
Hemingway? I thought you were trying to compliment him.
Sadus – The problem these days is not enough music journalists are failed musicians. The most musical experience a lot of folks have is plastic guitars for video games.
Matt Vogt – Heh, on the Internet, people are more than quick to express their opinions. They are more than slow, however, to express anything more substantial.
Full Metal Attorney – Sometimes folks stick entire reviews of mine up on Metal Archives without my permission (albeit with a link). I don’t care enough to raise a fuss, but I’ve observed that the links don’t generate much traffic.
Vijay Prozak – Of course, balance is crucial. But play the ball, not the player. As the Leonard Pierce piece that I linked to points out, “Critics should never judge people by how they react to art”.
Joe P – Thanks for the kind words! But as for writing about music professionally, definitely have a plan B ready.
VyceVictus – With art, especially the kinds we love, people should not tell us whether or not to buy something. We should make those decisions on our own. Reviews, if written clearly, will reveal their stance without needing to say “buy” or “don’t buy”. And with streaming/downloading audio, consumers have plenty of information to decide for themselves.
Hillbilly Fuckhead – Don’t get carried away with the comparisons. I’m still a hack.
Cosmo, I think I understand what you mean. People who love this scene will support it regardless, and bands who love playing music for their own reasons will keep on truckin’ regardless of music sales or trends.
Even so, I still feel like there’s so much room to propel metal into a much bigger format, and there are people young and old who are willing to give their time and money to support that end and cultivate the scene.
The thing is, they simply have no idea about so many quality bands available to them if they just look out side the mass produced pop culture media being fed to them. And yeah, if they really were ernest and passionate about music, they’d eventuallly find it on their own through some research and blind faith; that’s why a lot of us are here.
That said, maybe it’s time metal started focing itelf down people’s throats the way the music industry and youtube does for disposable pop. A harsh quality slag of castor oil down the spoiled youth’s gullet, just like mom used to do.
I personally feel like we need to get out of this underground basement dwelling for in-the-know kids mentality of metal and start forcing people to recognize it’s worth, or at least it’s revenue potential. I bring up the video game industry because it’s done just that; went from a niche of JRPGS and text adventures to a monstrous business that rivals the motion picture industry and has become ingrained in our culture. And though it has it’s horrible side effects (madden bros and foulmouthed 12 year old modern warfare whizzes) it’s also allowed for some truly remarkable, life altering even, gaming experiences, and the companies willing to invest money and experiment in those kinds of ventures.
Sorry for the TLDR, i just have as much invested in the words of reviewers as I do for the lyrics of bands i love and buy music from to support them. Those/your words have worth…. monetary tangible worth to me, not just on some esoteric cerebral level.
VyceVictus – it starts with you and us talking to our friends and friends of freinds passionately about what you listen to daily. I work in a record store, I love my (inadequate) metal section. I tell EVERYONE about what I’m enjoying ALL THE TIME. I know what they like, but I don’t care. I don’t believe for one second that there’s not something to be found in what I like that they couldn’t possibly grasp onto. Metal always plays up to the underground know-it-all, as if a buzz-worthy and cult status is worth something. I want everyone I know to enjoy what I enjoy so I can finally have some friends to share my musical interest with.
I’m just as guilty as my friends for dismissing someone else’s tastes when it falls outside my normal listening enjoyment, but luckily I have a few like-minded friends who always present stuff to me even though they know full well that I won’t even wanna hear it due to a stupid band name or shitty album cover or the use of terms like lush and pretty. But, then they put it on and 75% of the time I bet I enjoy what they’ve made me listen to. I may not run out and purchase it, or even import it to my iTunes, but I won’t be so bitter about ragging on it anymore, and plus, I’ll actually know where they’re coming from and what all the buzz-worthy hype is about.
Opinions about metal from the community outside of metal will only change if we change it in small steps with our friends first. If we can’t change it with words, change it with a listen. The internet and all it’s amazingness with streams, leaks, illegal and legal downloads, should make everything easier to grasp. Put it this way, a friend of mine who typically is into indie-rock and or folk actually said to me that he’s interested in hearing more Burzum. Huh? Couldn’t believe it. But, it was because I shared a link to a stream of a song from Fallen. He saw the album artwork, liked it, and gave it a shot. Then I talked it up. I don’t know if he ever did give it a shot, but now he at least knows what’s up as far as Burzum goes, or at least has a general idea without all the bullshit attached to Varg’s name.
Did I even make any sense here?
I vehemently disagree with #10. Agreement leads to bad conversation? Only if you suck at communicating.
Cosmo, thank you once again – insightful, humble, and charming as ever. This may just be the little push I need to pluck up the courage to get writing.
You’ll be missed.
@ Jeremy- I feel you bro
Also fuck Robert Christgau. I realize most “credible” critics don’t like metal, but jesus isn’t there someone who at least championed Black Sabbath whose literary ideas we can steal from.
Peruvian cooking is interesting because it is delicious…
VyceVictus – Metal is huge. It’s 40 years old, much older than most other forms of popular music. It has millions of fans worldwide. Some entities do harness that economic potential – the big metal festivals and labels.
At the same time, it’s very small in the grand scheme of things. In a world of limited bandwidth and broadcast spectrum space now mostly owned by large corporations, that powers that be aren’t going to substitute hip-hop or country music with metal, simply because they would make less money that way. So there is hardly any mechanism available now to “force metal down people’s throats”. (Also, forcing people to digest anything is a great way to get them not to like it.) That would have existed when the popular media was more of a monoculture. But with the Internet, everything is scattered, and everyone gets their information from varied sources.
The comparison to video games is interesting. The Guardian has had an ongoing thread about how video games outperform music and movies economically:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/jun/09/games-dvd-music-downloads-piracy
Video games have advantages – notions of agency, audiovisual experience, longer time of engagement – that have made them better value propositions for consumers than recorded music. I think the nature of recorded music would have to change drastically (i.e., become likewise immersive and user-controlled) to catch up.
I understand that my words here have economic impact. That’s why I supply purchase links at the end of reviews. But I don’t feel the need to call attention to that impact in the writing itself. I would rather people “get it” for themselves than through explicit calls to buy, buy, buy. That’s gauche.
Jeremy – Black metal, especially the strain that Burzum pioneered, has a lot of (probably) unintentional sonic parallels with indie rock. I’m not surprised your friend expressed interest in Burzum. Marduk or Gorgoroth would be a different proposition.
Josh – We don’t need any champions but ourselves. If something doesn’t exist that you need, create it.
IgnacioBrown – I believe you! Now to turn belief into knowledge!
Cosmo, Very interesting articles! I have a metal website and have made some reviews myself. I’m not very good in translating toughts into words and it can be frustrating sometimes to write these reviews for me. Another thing that I do to make my life tougher is to write those reviews both in french(my main language) and english, since my website is in both languages.
Since the writing structures are not the same in both languages, I try to write first in english, it practices my brain to construct ideas differently than it is used to when writing in french, that’s not an easy task but I’m progressing!
The tips you are giving about writing will be very helpful to me! Not that I want to become a professionnal writer but I do enjoy writing as a hobby and would love to get better at it. I guess it’s also time for me to continue reading On Writing, which I bought when it came out and stopped reading for an unknown reason…
Thanks again for these great articles!
Oops I actually intended on leaving this comment on the part 3 page, sorry… I will repost it there so you can delete this one!