Roy Jacobsen has a post on bad writing, quoting Stephen King who said fear is the root of most of it. (via Nerol Notae) I don’t know how much bad writing fear has caused for me, but I know it works me daily to produce no writing. Even now, I don’t know what to say next, which is the reason I link to other posts far more often than work up my own. What do I have to say that’s worth reading?

Now for the bad writing I’ve edited, fear may be the main reason behind it, but I have thought the reasons are lack of skill or time. I worked with one man who wrote frequently, but his style was difficult to read. He strung together several propositions without building an argument for any of them. A couple times, I suggested that the focus on one or two points for the article and illustrate them, but that idea never made into the writing. If he tried to do it, I don’t know. I told a friend that I thought he was writing at the best of his ability and that in order to write better he would have to spend much more time at it.

Perhaps fear was the root of his propositional writing. I don’t see it clearly enough to label it.