What Would Lewis Do?
By Evan Braun
There are few writers in the Christian world as revered as C.S. Lewis. Many readers discovered him young, through his Chronicles of Narnia novels, and many others discovered (or rediscovered) him later in life through his insightful apologetics, somewhere around eighty years after they were first written.
It’s safe to say that Lewis has left a profound legacy.
He’s also left behind some really useful advice to help other writers achieve their best results! His voice is one we should pay particular attention to as we work to improve our craft as wordsmiths.
In today’s post, I want to break down my five favourite pieces of advice Lewis passed along. Without a doubt, these are words to live by.
Listen to what your writing sounds like. Lewis was on to something profound when he said, “Always write (and read) with the ear, not the eye. You should hear every sentence you write as if it was being read aloud or spoken. If it does not sound nice, try again.”
In Lewis’s era, the best way to achieve this was to personally read your work aloud—or perhaps better, recruit someone to read your own writing back to you. Both of which are still options today!
The good news is that there are completely accessible software solutions that allow your computer to read your words back to you, and this is a step every writer should take before they release their manuscript into the wild. Every time I do this (and I never skip it), I’m amazed at the subtle errors I catch.
To read further about my take on this, I’ve written about it here.
Don’t tell the reader what to feel; your words should make them feel it. This is not new advice. In fact, it’s pretty much the oldest piece of advice ever: “Show, don’t tell.” But Lewis expresses the central idea perfectly.
“Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the things you are describing,” he says. “I mean, instead of telling us the thing is ‘terrible,’ describe it so that we’ll be terrified… You see, all those words—horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite—are only like saying to your readers ‘Please, will you do my job for me?’”
I really like how he puts that. He’s basically telling us not to abdicate our responsibility as storytellers by telling the reader to fill in the blanks. It’s our job to fill in all the blanks. As writers, our tools are the words we choose, and we must deploy them effectively to inspire our readers’ emotions. Anything else is laziness.
I’ve written more about this, from a different and somewhat specific angle, very recently.
Only use words you understand. At first glance, this seems obvious. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve edited books filled with ill-suited words and phrases that have been added to the manuscript on the advice of a thesaurus.
These days, with the advent of AI, this piece of advice has taken on a new dimension.
Lewis wisely said, “Be sure you know the meaning (or meanings) of every word you use.”
It’s simple, yes, but fundamental. When an author is reaching beyond their grasp in order to sound smart, it shows. You don’t need to “sound smart.” You only need to sound like yourself. Try not to overextend.
I touched on this same topic a couple of years ago by way of a personal story.
The next advice from Lewis follows a similar line.
Communicate clearly and with precision. It is often the case that authors feel they can come across more artistically by couching their ideas in purple prose, elaborate metaphor, and flowery turns of phrase. I certainly won’t argue that these writing techniques have their place. But if you don’t recognize your own limits, it can be easy to veer off into dangerous territory.
In Lewis’s well-chosen words, “Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.”
I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. We must never forget to prioritize substance over style. By stating things indirectly, you can confuse something that might otherwise be conveyed in very simple terms.
Repetition is often the best way to drive a point home, so Lewis didn’t stop there.
“Take great pains to be clear,” he wrote. “Remember that though you start by knowing what you mean, the reader doesn’t, and a single ill-chosen word may lead him to a total misunderstanding. In a story it is terribly easy just to forget that you have not told the reader something that he needs to know—the whole picture is so clear in your own mind that you forget that it isn’t the same in his.”
I’ve been beating this drum for a long time: clarity is king.
When it comes to your Christian values, be subtle. Later in life, Lewis made a point of eschewing the practice of writers forcing Christianity into their storytelling when those ideas didn’t necessarily flow naturally.
As a Christian book editor, I couldn’t agree more.
“We needn’t all write patently moral or theological work,” Lewis advised. “Indeed, work whose Christianity is latent may do quite as much good and may reach some whom the more obvious religious work would scare away. The first business of a story is to be a good story. When our Lord made a wheel in the carpenter shop, depend upon it: it was first and foremost a good wheel… a good story which will give innocent pleasure is a good thing, just like cooking a good nourishing meal.”
In other words, we shouldn’t work overly hard to shoehorn our Christian beliefs into our work, as though that’s the most important part of what we do. According to Lewis, if a piece of Christian doctrine fits well into a story, it will happen on its own accord.
This subject has manifested itself in several previous posts of mine on this blog, notably here and here.
In closing, why is it that we so often insist on learning our own lessons the hard way, as opposed to depending on the proven wisdom of those who have already navigated the very same treacherous roads we’re walking? When it comes to C.S. Lewis, we should take his wise words to heart.
About this Contributor:
Evan Braun is a full-time author and editor. He has authored three novels, the first of which, The Book of Creation, was shortlisted in two categories at the 2012 Word Awards. He has released two sequels, The City of Darkness (2013) and The Law of Radiance (2015), completing the series. Braun is an experienced professional editor, and has worked with Word Alive Press authors since 2006. He is also a regular contributor at The Fictorians, a popular writing blog.