H. P.

Lovecrafts Advice to Aspiring Writers, 1920

by Maria Popova
A page of Addison or of Irving will teach more of style than a whole manual of rules,
whilst a story of Poes will impress upon the mind a more vivid notion of powerful and
correct description and narration than will ten dry chapters of a bulky textbook.
If there is a magic in story writing, admonished Henry Miller, and I am convinced
there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from
one person to another. And yet, famous advice on writing abounds.
In January of 192, iconic science fiction and fantasy author H. P. Lovecraft !ublished
a short guide titled Literary o!position" for "nited Amateur #ress Association $ a
grassroots literary education collective that dubbed itself an %e&!onent of amateur
'ournalism,( an early version of today)s blogs and citi*en 'ournalism. +ound in the
anthology Writings in the United Amateur,free download- public library., the essay
offers as!iring writers technical ti!s and big/!icture wisdom on the art and craft of the
written word.
Much li0e Jennifer 1gan did nearly a century later, 2ovecraft stresses the vital osmosis
between reading and writing3
4o as!iring author should content himself with a mere ac5uisition of technical rules. 6
All attem!ts at gaining literary !olish must begin with 'udicious reading, and the learner
must never cease to hold this !hase u!!ermost. In many cases, the usage of good
authors will be found a more effective guide than any amount of !rece!t. A !age of
Addison or of Irving will teach more of style than a whole manual of rules, whilst a story
of #oe)s will im!ress u!on the mind a more vivid notion of !owerful and correct
descri!tion and narration than will ten dry cha!ters of a bul0y te&tboo0.
2ovecraft notes the e5ual im!ortance of non/reading as intellectual choice3
It is also im!ortant that chea!er ty!es of reading, if hitherto followed, be dro!!ed.
#o!ular maga*ines inculcate a careless and de!lorable style which is hard to unlearn,
and which im!edes the ac5uisition of a !urer style. If such things must be read, let
them be s0immed over as lightly as !ossible. An e&cellent habit to cultivate is the
analytical study of the 7ing James 8ible. +or sim!le yet rich and forceful 1nglish, this
masterly !roduction is hard to e5ual- and even though its 9a&on vocabulary and !oetic
rhythm be unsuited to general com!osition, it is an invaluable model for writers on
5uaint or imaginative themes.
He advocates for cultivating a love of uncommon words3
:ne su!erlatively im!ortant effect of wide reading is the enlargement of vocabulary
which always accom!anies it. ;he average student is gravely im!eded by the narrow
range of words from which he must choose, and he soon discovers that in long
com!ositions he cannot avoid monotony. In reading, the novice should note the varied
mode of e&!ression !racticed by good authors, and should 0ee! in his mind for future
use the many a!!ro!riate synonymes he encounters. 4ever should an unfamiliar word
be !assed over without elucidation- for with a little conscientious research we may
each day add to our con5uests in the realm of !hilology, and become more and more
ready for graceful inde!endent e&!ression.
8ut in enlarging the vocabulary, we must beware lest we misuse our new !ossessions.
<e must remember that there are fine distinctions betwi&t a!!arently similar words,
and that language must ever be selected with intelligent care.
2i0e ;horeau, 2ovecraft finds in nature a literary muse3
+or the !ur!ose of securing e!ithets at once accurate and felicitous, the young author
should familiari*e himself thoroughly with the general as!ect and !henomena of
4ature, as well as with the ideas and associations which these things !roduce in the
human mind.
He offers a meditation on fact and fiction, with a cautionary note about narrative
se5uence3
In fictional narration, verisimilitude is absolutely essential. A story must be consistent
and must contain no event glaringly removed from the usual order of things, unless that
event is the main incident, and is a!!roached with the most careful !re!aration. In real
life, odd and erratic things do occasionally ha!!en- but they are out of !lace in an
ordinary story, since fiction is a sort of ideali*ation of the average. =evelo!ment should
be as lifeli0e as !ossible, and a wea0, tric0ling conclusion should be assiduously
avoided. ;he end of a story must be stronger rather than wea0er than the beginning-
since it is the end which contains the denouement or culmination, and which will leave
the strongest im!ression u!on the reader. It would not be amiss for the novice to write
the last !aragra!h of his story first, once a syno!sis of the !lot has been carefully
!re!ared$as it always should be. In this way he will be able to concentrate his
freshest mental vigour u!on the most im!ortant !art of his narrative- and if any
changes be later found needful, they can easily be made. In no !art of a narrative
should a grand or em!hatic thought or !assage be followed by one of tame or !rosaic
5uality. ;his is antic#i!a$, and e&!oses a writer to much ridicule.
2ovecraft enumerates the twenty most common mista0es of young authors, %aside from
those gross violations of synta& which ordinary education corrects,( and offers a
common cure for all3
1. 1rroneous !lurals of nouns, as va##ies or ec%os.
2. 8arbarous com!ound nouns, as vie&point or 'p(eep.
>. <ant of corres!ondence in number between noun and verb where the two are
widely se!arated or the construction involved.
?. Ambiguous use of !ronouns.
@. 1rroneous case of !ronouns, as &%o! for &%o, and vice versa, or !hrases li0e
%between you and ),( or %2et&e who are loyal, act !rom!tly.(
A. 1rroneous use of s%a## and &i##, and of other au&iliary verbs.
B. "se of intransitive for transitive verbs, as %he &as grad'ated from college,( or
vice versa, as %heingratiated with the tyrant.(
C. "se of nouns for verbs, as %he !otored to 8oston,( or %he voiced a !rotest.(
9. 1rrors in moods and tenses of verbs, as %If I &as he, I should do otherwise,( or
%He said the earth &asround.(
1. ;he s!lit infinitive, as %to calmly g#ide.(
11. ;he erroneous !erfect infinitive, as %2ast wee0 I e&!ected to %ave !et you.(
12. +alse verb/forms, as %I p#ed with him.(
1>. "se of #i(e for as, as %I strive to write #i(e #o!e wrote.(
1?. Misuse of !re!ositions, as %;he gift was bestowed toan unworthy ob'ect,( or
%;he gold was dividedbet&een the five men.(
1@. ;he su!erfluous con'unction, as %I wish for you to do this.(
1A. "se of words in wrong senses, as %;he boo0 greatlyintrig'ed me,( %Leave me
ta0e this,( %He was obsessedwith the idea,( or %He is a !etic'#o's writer.(
1B. 1rroneous use of non/Anglicised foreign forms, as %a strange p%eno!ena,( or
%two stratas of clouds.(
1C. "se of false or unauthori*ed words, as b'rg#ari*e ors'pre!est.
19. 1rrors of taste, including vulgarisms, !om!ousness, re!etition, vagueness,
ambiguousness, collo5uialism, bathos, bombast, !leonasm, tautology,
harshness, mi&ed meta!hor, and every sort of rhetorical aw0wardness.
2. 1rrors of s!elling and !unctuation, and confusion of forms such as that which
leads many to !lace an a!ostro!he in the !ossessive !ronoun its.
:f all blunders, there is hardly one which might not be avoided through diligent study of
sim!le te&tboo0s on grammar and rhetoric, intelligent !erusal of the best authors, and
care and forethought in com!osition. Almost no e&cuse e&ists for their !ersistent
occurrence, since the sources of correction are so numerous and so available.