Billerica Public Library

Writing tools, 55 essential strategies for every writer, Roy Peter Clark

eng

index present

non fiction

Writing tools

957527699

Roy Peter Clark

55 essential strategies for every writer

Roy Peter Clark distills decades of experience into 55 tools that will help any writer become more fluent and effective. This book 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 55 tools

Preface to the Tenth Anniversary Edition -- Introduction : A nation of writers -- Part One. Nuts and Bolts -- Tool 1. Begin sentences with subjects and verbs -- Tool 2. Order words for emphasis -- Tool 3. Activate your verbs -- Tool 4. Be passive-aggressive -- Tool 5. Watch those adverbs -- Tool 6. Take it easy on the -ings -- Tool 7. Fear not the long sentence -- Tool 8. Establish a pattern, then give it a twist -- Tool 9. Let punctuation control pace and space -- Tool 10. Cut big, then small -- Part Two. Special Effects -- Tool 11. Prefer the simple over the technical -- Tool 12. Give key words their space -- Tool 13. Play with words, even in serious stories -- Tool 14. Get the name of the dog -- Tool 15. Pay attention to names -- Tool 16. Seek original images -- Tool 17. Riff on the creative language of others -- Tool 18. Set the pace with sentence length -- Tool 19. Vary the lengths of paragraphs -- Tool 20. Choose the number of elements with a purpose in mind -- Tool 21. Know when to back off and when to show off -- Tool 22. Climb up and down the ladder of abstraction -- Tool 23. Tune your voice -- Part Three. Blueprints -- Tool 24. Work from a plan -- Tool 25. Learn the difference between reports and stories -- Tool 26. Use dialogue as a form of action -- Tool 27. Reveal traits of character -- Tool 28. Put odd and interesting things next to each other -- Tool 29. Foreshadow dramatic events and powerful conclusions -- Tool 30. To generate suspense, use internal cliffhangers -- Tool 31. Build your work around a key question -- Tool 32. Place gold coins along the path -- Tool 33. Repeat, repeat, and repeat -- Tool 34. Write from different cinematic angles -- Tool 35. Report and write for scenes -- Tool 36. Mix narrative modes -- Tool 37. In short works, don't waste a syllable -- Tool 38. Prefer archetypes to stereotypes -- Tool 39. Write toward an ending -- Part Four. Useful Habits -- Tool 40. Draft a mission statement for your work -- Tool 41. Turn procrastination into rehearsal -- Tool 42. Do your homework well in advance -- Tool 43. Read for both form and content -- Tool 44. Save string -- Tool 45. Break long projects into parts -- Tool 46. Take an interest in all crafts that support your work -- Tool 47. Recruit your own support group -- Tool 48. Limit self-criticism in early drafts -- Tool 49. Learn from your critics -- Tool 50. Own the tools of your craft -- Part Five. Bonus Tools -- Tool 51. Take advantage of narrative numbers -- Tool 52. Express your best thought in the shortest sentence -- Tool 53. Match your diction to your writing purpose -- Tool 54. Create a mosaic of detail to reveal character -- Tool 55. Look for the "inciting incident" to kick-start your story -- Afterword -- Acknowledgments -- Writing tools quick list -- Index

55 essential strategies for every writer