Product Description

One of America's most influential writing teachers offers a toolbox from which writers of all kinds can draw practical inspiration.

"Writing is a craft you can learn," says Roy Peter Clark. "You need tools, not rules." His book distills decades of experience into 50 tools that will help any writer become more fluent and effective.

WRITING TOOLS covers everything from the most basic ("Tool 5: Watch those adverbs") to the more complex ("Tool 34: Turn your notebook into a camera") and provides more than 200 examples from literature and journalism to illustrate the concepts. For students, aspiring novelists, and writers of memos, e-mails, PowerPoint presentations, and love letters, here are 50 indispensable, memorable, and usable tools.



"Pull out a favorite novel or short story, and read it with the guidance of Clark's ideas. . . . Readers will find new worlds in familiar places. And writers will be inspired to pick up their pens." -Boston Globe

"For all the aspiring writers out there-whether you're writing a novel or a technical report-a respected scholar pulls back the curtain on the art." -Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"This is a useful tool for writers at all levels of experience, and it's entertainingly written, with plenty of helpful examples." -Booklist

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15316 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Covering the writing waterfront-from basics on verb tense to the value of forming a "support group"-Poynter Institute vice president Clark offers tips, tricks and techniques for anyone putting fingers to keyboard. The best assets in Clark's book are in the "workshop" sections that conclude each chapter and list strategies for incorporating the material covered in each lesson (minimize adverbs, use active verbs, read your work aloud). Though some suggestions are classroom campy ("Listen to song lyrics to hear how the language moves on the ladder of abstraction" and "With some friends, take a big piece of chart paper and with colored markers draw a diagram of your writing process"), Clark's blend of instruction and exercise will prove especially useful for teachers. One exercise, for instance, suggests reading the newspaper and marking the location of subjects and verbs. Another provides a close reading of a passage from The Postman Always Rings Twice to look at the ways word placement and sentence structure can add punch to prose. Clark doesn't intend his guide to be a replacement for classic style guides like Elements of Style, but as a companion volume, it does the trick.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
The author, vice president of the Poynter Institute School of Journalism, wants you to understand that a tool isn't the same thing as a rule. A tool is something designed to help you, not constrict you. The 50 tools discussed here take writers through the process of storytelling in prose, from the basic (construct a sentence with a subject and a verb) to the advanced (make your characters archetypes, not stereotypes). Many of Clark's rules are technical, having to do with such matters as punctuation and tense, but some of them are more thematically oriented (for example, discussions of the proper uses of foreshadowing and suspense). Use the tools when you like, the author says, and throw them away when it suits you. Just know what it is you're throwing away and why. This is a useful tool for writers at all levels of experience, and it's entertainingly written, with plenty of helpful examples. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
'Wrtiers will be inspired' 'Wrtiers will be inspired'

Customer Reviews

Probably the most practical writing improvement guide.
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.

I wish I'd read this years ago
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.

Very good, BUT...
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).