Making Meaning

There is more to writing than simply writing, and part of becoming a better writer is becoming a better reader and thinker. This is because reading, writing, and thinking are intimately related activities that all involve the making of meaning, and the better you can process and organize new information, the better you will be able to integrate it with your own accumulated experience, and thus produce better, more expressive, and, frankly, more “meaningful” writing.

Therefore, the only way to become a better writer is to become a better finder and maker of meaning, and then to become more comfortable and proficient at translating that meaning onto the written page (or screen). The payoff in all of this is that in addition to becoming a better writer, you will also become a better reader, not only of your books, but of all manifestations of the language that shapes the world around you.