An observation about writing, from Richard Marius

A good reason to read Bryan Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: each post closes with a little bonus, a quoted passage about language or writing. Here’s one sentence from yesterday’s passage:

When you write every day about yourself and your immediate world, you will develop habits that will help you observe the greater world beyond yourself.

Richard Marius, A Writer’s Companion (New York: Knopf, 1985).

Richard Marius’s book, now out of print, is a good one. It’s the kind of book that seems to be of little interest in the world of “comp” — the work of a writer (not a “specialist”) sharing what he knows.