Vice Magazine Interviews Bryan A. Garner
December 24, 2010
Vice is an online magazine for perverts and degenerates, and so seeing this interview with stuffed shirt Bryan A. Garner was surprising. I've read all of Garner's books, and just downloaded his Modern American Usage to my iPad. (This wasn't a great idea, as finding entries on the Kindle version of GMAU is cumbersome. It's still preferable to lugging the paper version around the dog park.) When a law student asked me for advice on writing, I told him to read everything Garner has written. In 2002, a famous trial lawyer told me, before he'd ever let me work for him, that I had to read The Winning Brief. Circle of life and blah-blah-blah.
The interview is good, even if you're not a stuffed shirt. However, Garner gives one piece of medicore advice:
Vice: Any more concrete advice [on becoming a better writer]?
Garner: You have to write a lot. You ought to keep a journal and write a lot of letters, and I mean old-fashioned handwritten notes.
Probably it should be must write a lot, although that's not my quibble. Despite C&F's slapdash style, I take writing seriously. I started the blog to force me to improve my writing. Since I have enough paid writing to keep me busy, I don't have the time for styling at Crime & Federalism. During law school I had the time, and my earlier blog posts are my most well written ones.
The best thing a youngling can do is start a blog. Write every day. At first it will be, as Hemingway said of all first drafts, shit. Eventually you'll find your style.
I used to be a notorious letter writer. I once did the Tony Robbins thing by writing to everyone who inspired me. I even thanked my high school English teacher. That's how, in 2001, I was in California but became good friends with Norm Pattis, who was all the way in Connecticut. This was in the era of e-mail but years before legal blogs.
Writing old-fashioned letters might not be a mediocre idea after all.