Editor’s Note: Acclaimed writer and Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Pittsburgh Marcus Rediker has long informally circulated a list of writing tips among his students, colleagues, and friends. Co-author with Peter Linebaugh of the seminal study “The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic,” Rediker has been generous enough to share his invaluable writing tips with the readers of PRoB.
Writing tip #1: No matter where you are in the writing process, imagine your ideal audience and write for it – small or large, simple or complex: friends, family, community, scholars, activists, children, theatre-goers, the general public. You get to pick the combination.
Writing tip #2: Three things to do to write for a broader audience. First, you need to want to. (Most people do not.) Second, you need to read and study gifted prose stylists and learn from them. Third, you must work hard at the art and craft of writing. It’s all pretty simple.
Writing tip #3: Figure out what time of day you write best (very early morning for me), and write something every day, as little as a paragraph or a page. This is easier to do than you think. Consistency of effort matters; it is a form of discipline and should become a habit.
Writing tip #4: As I write a book, I bury myself in a brilliant work of fiction about the same time period, to fill my mind with its literary power. Example: as I wrote *The Fearless Benjamin Lay* I read Barry Unsworth’s *Sacred Hunger* (for the fifth or sixth time).
Writing tip no. 5: When I know what I want to write about the following morning, I reread my primary sources closely the night before. This makes it easier to get started the next day, and sometimes the unconscious mind does a stunning job of sorting things out.
Writing tip #6: In my view, the essential unit of good writing is the paragraph. If you’re stuck, spinning your wheels, write one strong paragraph, just one, about whatever topic you are on. In my experience, this breaks the logjam and allows thoughts to flow onto the page.
Writing tip #7: When during the course of research, you come across a story that is central to the theme of your book, go ahead and write 2-3 pages about it. If you do this consistently, you’ll accumulate building blocks for the book. You’ll eventually find a place for each one.
Writing tip #8 : Embodiment. Anytime you can make an idea or a concept come alive through a person or an event, do it. An argument made through vivid, concrete human thought and action is much more powerful and memorable than a dry abstraction.
Writing tip #9: Find a fragment of a poem from the time period you are studying, one that embodies a theme or two of your investigation, and write a paragraph, a section, or a chapter around it. Make that poem sing its historical significance.
Writing tip #10: Very few writers of non-fiction ever comment on this kind of thing, but almost every book has a complex and secret emotional life. The more the writer is aware of the deepest emotional wellsprings of the book, the deeper and more creative the book is likely to be.
Writing tip #11: Suffuse your writing with energy. Use the active voice. Craft strong topic sentences for each paragraph and finish each with a flourish that drives home the main point. Embrace metaphor and poetic description. Use adjectives that evoke light and movement.
Writing tip #12: Economy of expression. Strunk and White said, “Omit needless words.” Blaise Pascal wrote to a friend: “I’m sorry I wrote you such a long letter; I didn’t have time to write a short one.” Use 3 words rather than 4; be ruthless. Shorter = more powerful.
Writing tip #13: Do everything you can as a writer to control the circle of meaning with your readers. Be crystal clear in everything you say; edit ruthlessly to eliminate ambiguity. Readers are of course free to misread you, and they will. Clarity of argument will make that harder.
Writing tip #14: Go on reading your sources until you hear voices, then write a deeply human story about your historical subjects. Readers want to learn about real people, making real choices, in real circumstances. Make your actors complex and multi-dimensional.
Writing tip #15: Read broadly and deeply to master the cultures you are writing about. Your command of cultural detail, especially language and meaning. will add depth and authenticity to your writing. I often use *A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue* (1785).
Last writing tip, #16: Find ways to combine narrative and analytical voices in your writing. This is hard to do but well worth working at. Adding context to storytelling will help, but it is still important to step back from the story to explain its causes and consequences.
Image courtesy of the David Graeber Institute.
