How to Take a Massive Leap Forward in Your Writing Through One Simple Exercise
As a historian of alternative spirituality, I strive to understand people who lived by unusual and sometimes misunderstood ideas. I study figures, from occultists to Satanists to positive-thinkers, whose inner lights, depending on your perspective, can seem bizarre, brilliant or some mixture of the two. Navigating this unsettled terrain requires a balance of respect and critical judgment.
In finding my voice as a historical writer, I benefited years ago from an exercise that I am convinced can help anyone to write and express a point of view more clearly and persuasively.
This simple and revelatory exercise came to me from a MacArthur-winning essayist and social critic. First, identify a piece of critical writing that you admire — perhaps an essay, article or review — but above all, something that captures the vitality and discrimination that you would like to bring to the page. Then, recopy it by hand.
The act of copying a piece by hand — not on a device— reveals the innards and guts of what the writer is doing. Writing with pencil and paper compels you to become mentally and even physically involved in dissecting the work. You gain new perspective on how the writer says things, how he uses examples and evidence, how each word maximizes his meaning, and how he…
