The Great Charles Price On Writing

On the 20th anniversary of his passing, Charles Price is remembered by Golf Digest editor Jerry Tarde. On the list of those egregiously left out of the World Golf Hall of Fame in lieu of those who return Tim Finchem's phone calls, Price is a golf writing hero to many whose prose have aged incredibly well. (Golfer At Large is a personal favorite and the perfect introduction to writer that is Price. It's also one of the best golf anthologies ever, with an Introduction by Ben Hogan.)

Tarde, via Guy Yocom, shares a fax Price sent to the Digest offices on February 1, 1993, outlining his rules for writers. On this note, I'm going to go catch up on my reading pile...

Increasing your vocabulary: Everybody has three vocabularies: The largest is the one you read with. You can gather the sense of an unfamiliar word from its context. Next is the one you write with. It permits you the luxury of second thoughts. The smallest is the one you speak with. Since nobody likes to put his foot in his mouth, you only use words that are second nature. Consequently, the only way to improve all your vocabularies is by reading. The others follow.

Reading: Read what you ought to read, not just what you want to. Three hours a day is an absolute minimum. Any writer who can't find those three hours is in the wrong business.