A picture says more than a thousand words, so the saying goes. And good photos and illustrations can really help convey a message quickly and easily. But many of us are writing more and more both professionally and privately. So we certainly need to say it well, whether it’s an e-mail to a colleague, a letter to your mother-in-law or a brochure for your customers.

It is even more important to express yourself well in social media. What you write can spread like wildfire.  And there’s no way you can erase what you’ve written on the net.

How do you learn to write good texts? Hemingway said: Real seriousness in regard to writing is one of two absolute necessities. The other, unfortunately, is talent. OK, Hemingway did win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 but is perhaps a bit extreme in what he says.

A simpler and more positive answer is that you learn to write by writing, writing and writing again. Whatever – a letter to a local newspaper, a letter to a good friend or a poem. But of course it helps to get knowledge and inspiration from somewhere.

Here are some book tips from our copywriters at the agency. Read and enjoy being seduced by what King, Strunk & White, Hemingway, Crompton and Öhlin say about the art of writing good texts.

Steven King, On writing: A Memoir of the Craft

William Strunk Jr. & E. B. White, The Elements of Style

Ernest Hemingway, Monologue to the Maestro: A High Seas Letter

Alastair Crompton, The Craft of Copywriting

Fuck Logic, Per Robert Öhlin