Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer

Each chapter contains a tool ("Begin Sentences with subjects and verbs.") and then uses multiple examples to demonstrate how well-known authors have used it sucessfully. It explains why each tool is useful and how it can be abused and/or disregarded for specific purposes. At the end of each chapter there are excercises to practice the "lesson" using the newspaper, books you like, your writing, etc.

Encompases fiction, non-fiction, journalism, and even poetry. Good for all types of writers.

The style is not condescending, it's very easy to understand and apply to your writing that you have now. I have already made improvements on just the few paragraphs I've re-worked using Clark's tips.

If you are looking for a book to help you improve your writing style and give insight to the techniques of many sucessful authors, then buy this book. Today.

Roy Peter Clark is a great teacher and a fine writer, and demonstrates both skills in this book, which breaks down practical writing tips, both on the micro and macro level. The tools he succinctly discusses in this book can improve any form of writing. I'd recommend this book for anyone looking to make their writing more effective.

This book delivers. I've authored 4 books and learned much here that i wish i had known for the 4 of them! Great tips are spelled out simply and quickly (each chapter is a very quick read). The book is filled with examples both quoted and sometimes even placed (cleverly) within the text. Those times make the book fun to read--you can sense the authors wicked smile as he stuck those gems in.

So why 4 stars? A dozen or more of the 50 tools did not apply to my kind of writing. Despite the back cover and the introduction that claim the book is for any writer, it clearly has a heavy slant towards fiction writers and news reporters. Most the examples are theirs. Sadly, even in chapters where the point is universal, most of the examples are still theirs. There are many chapters (tools) that dont seem to apply to technical and other non-fiction situations: "Use dialogue as a form of action" and "write from different cinematic angles" and "pay attention to names" to name a few.

Any writer WILL gain a lot from this book, it's just that some will get much more out of it (and i guess i resented being "sold" that it applied to all writers equally when it really doesnt).

Writers are born, not made. Wrong! Wrong!!! You are imaginative and know basic grammar so get writing. How to allow yourself to be imaginative is a whole different subject. Look at my Random short stories blog to show what you can do with a single word. The key is to brainstorm the word to see what pops up. But back to Writing Tools which looks at fifty tools divided into:

Nuts and bolts-grammar, punctuation, sentence and paragraph construction etc;

Special Effects-be concrete and simple and know how to make the writing guide the response of the reader etc;

Blue prints-tricks of structuring; and

Useful habits-reflections of how to start and keep writing.

Each of the tools are 3-4 pages long with examples drawn from journalism and fiction to illustrate the points raised. There is summary page of the 50 tools on his blog site. Talking about how to write is as about useful as cooking advice, you need to see and taste it to see if its worth taking. So this is a piece of my writing with a makeover using the tools. So which version do you prefer? Strongly recommended book for you bloggers, budding reporters and secret scribblers.

Original version

So why ,if you are still with me, would you bother to read what appears to be such a distasteful book? The clue is in the structure and descriptions of the book repetitive phraseology of medical sexual teams and the descriptions of the car and body parts. It means that you the reader experience the alienation and emptiness that is the heart of the story. The story is not erotic in any sense as it point to the emptiness of lives that depend on more and more extreme highs and drugs to keep the sexual tension going. Death then becomes the ultimate sexual act. Nowhere does love and community figure in a world of motorways, airports, roundabouts and technological emptiness. What ever the feelings and motives of the writer, the story serves as a warning of a society that obsesses objects and appearances over personal relationships and social community-who cares for the children in this vision of our lives?


The tools used

1 Begin sentences with subjects and verbs

3 Use active and not passive verbs

9 Let punctuation control pace and space

10 Prefer the simple over the technical

16 Seek original imagery

23 Read to tune your voice

31 build around a key question

The revised version

So why, bother to read such a distasteful book? The recurring use of clinical sexual terms and the similar descriptions of car and body parts is a clue. The act of reading makes us emotionally distanced observers of a world running on empty. Sex means ever more extreme risks until Death becomes the ultimate high. In a world of motorways, airports, roundabouts and technology where is love and community? We need to read, whatever the feelings and motives of the writer, to avoid making a society that obsesses objects and appearances leaving no place for a simple kiss or the love of paren

I started to write as soon as I started to read, which is to say very young. I write daily; prevent me from writing and you will have to deal with the consequences: distant stares, mumbling, note-scribbling, sudden odd ejaculations (of words).

And I like to think that I have over the years gained some proficiency in writing. But there is always room for improvement and fresh insight into the process, and I regularly sample books on writing craft to pick up pointers.

Writing Tools caught my eye the other day. I was struck by the presence of the words "tools" and "strategies" in the title, rather than the "rules" and "guidelines" featured so prominently in many another book devoted to writing skills. And as advertised, I found in this book tools immediately welcome and useful in my writer's toolbox.

Clark's background is journalism, and many of the tools are devoted to increasing clarity and conciseness. But these are characteristics as important in fiction as in nonfiction, and the tools can be used on any form or genre.

Each 'tool' is covered in a short chapter, the 50 chapters grouped as "Nuts and Bolts", "Blueprints", "Special Effects", and "Useful Habits". (It would be more accurate to say that the chapters, averaging four pages, are not short but rather just as long as needed -- Clark stresses allowing words the space they need while keeping them reined in.) 'Homework' is assigned in the "Workshop" exercises for each chapter.

The book is replete with examples of fine writing in a variety of styles; Clark's critical analysis turns each of these examples into a lesson. He also asks us to ponder previous pages of the book and consider their alternative forms.

I said above that I found the tools presented in this book immediately useful, and I would hazard to say that any writer, of any degree of experience, could open this book at random and find something useful. Roughly half the book is dedicated to strategies for creativity and structure (Chapter 28: "Put odd and interesting things next to each other") with the remainder presenting tools for tightening up what has already been written (Chapter 5: "Watch Those Adverbs"). Writers could do worse than to copy synopses of these chapters onto cards, then draw a card at random as the 'tool of the day' to apply to works in progress.

After just one pass through this book, I already think of each chapter as a separate tool in the toolbox. Just as in my carpenter's toolbox there are tools for selecting, measuring, and cutting; tools and hardware for joining and building; tools for removal of material and for finishing and polishing. And just as in my carpenter's toolbox, I find satisfaction in knowing that I have the proper tools at hand to build new projects.

The book itself is the best tool of all. I am going to buy a copy, plus several to give or loan out.