Tools to Improve Your Writing
I picked up Roy Peter Clark’s book, Writing Tools, a couple of weeks ago, and have been gleefully browsing through it since. It isn’t the kind of book you have to read front to back. Each of the fifty tools has its own chapter with examples and suggested workshop exercises.
You can see a Quick List of the writing tools at Poynter’s website. Get the book, though. The explanations and examples are clear and helpful for understanding how to use these tools in your own writing. I’m sure you could come up with your own exercises, but it’s time-saving to have a list of 4 or 5 at the end of each chapter.
Books like these are essential for writers, especially full-time writers. Why? Because we get too sure. We become comfortable with the craft and the business of writing and forget that, like any craft, there are ever higher levels for us craftsmen to reach. We slip into habits. We don’t realize how fluffy and sloppy our writing gets; we are too familiar with it.
Reading Clark’s book not only brings up many grade-school lessons I’ve forgotten, it also affirms the need for constant improvement. Success as a writer - at least meaningful success - requires an excellence and professionalism that must not be allowed to grow stale.
You grow or you die.
Some of my favorite tools from Clark’s list:
- #7 Fear not the long sentence.
- #8 Establish a pattern, then give it a twist.
- #14 Get the name of the dog.
- #26 Use dialogue as a form of action.
- #48 Limit self-criticism in early drafts.
There are podcasts available on the Quick List for 1 through 32. I’m listening to #24 right now.
May 27th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
I love this book. I have a galley copy that I got for a magazine review and you’ve just reminded me that I need to pull it out. I like keeping great writer’s books like this on my desk beside my trusty thesaurus so I can refer to them often.
Clark’s book is definitely a book worth investing in.
May 27th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
I love collecting writing books, because even when I’m procrastinating on the writing by reading about writing I can still justify it because I’m learning about writing… right?
With Clark’s book, that theory is actually valid.