Unlike the bards of the Shakespearean age, who had to sing their words, today we just need to tap out sentences. With every column, the hope was that something would resonate in the reader; catalyse something—an echo, empathy or insight. Week after week, the copy desk—an obnoxiously impersonal title for a magnificently acute-eyed group of readers—gave my writing clarity and accuracy. From the beginning, I formulated certain rules for my writing, mostly subconscious, informed by writers I liked to read. I even emailed Jared Diamond and Ed Yong, favourite writers, about notions of time in anthropology and science.

Source: Mint August 03, 2016 10:07 UTC