The author of How to Prepare Your Manuscript for a Publisher now presents more essential advice for fiction and nonfiction writers. This invaluable reference offers easy access to stratagems and tried-and-true literary shortcuts that help writers save time, improve style and avoid common pitfalls. Whether a beginner or student, amateur or professional, readers will refer time and again to David Carroll's practical tips for: writing with expression; improving structure; correcting and rewriting with greater efficiency; developing "writer's logic"; avoiding the hazards of burnout, boredom and lack of motivation; dealing with writer's block; and reworking scholarly prose for greater clarity.
Anonymous
Posted September 6, 2003
Except to the beginner this book has little to say, and there are better books even for the novice. For fiction writers there is John Gardner's 'The Art of Fiction' and for non-fiction (as well as fiction) there is Lucile Vaughan Payne's 'The Lively Art of Writing.' Both contain all that this book does and much more besides; and they are better written. This book seems to me to be typical of those 'how-to' books churned out by those who have nothing of value to add to the lore, and who write simply for the sake of a quick buck.
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Posted January 16, 2001
This one's for everyone fiction and non-fiction. You pick up this slim paperback, rifle the pages and bang! A Manual of Writer's Tricks by David L. Carroll gives you ammunition to instantly liven your writing. My copy is well-highlighted. The foreword is written by literary agent Sheree Bykofsky who once sent me a delightful rejection letter. Some examples (I just gave you one - irony); Show don't tell - instead of 'the ship was heavily weighted,' say 'Excess cargo made her tilt slightly to port.' Use words that evoke images - instead of 'my back is sore all over,' say 'I ache along every nerve ending and vertebra of my spine.' You get the picture, now go get the book.
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Overview
The author of How to Prepare Your Manuscript for a Publisher now presents more essential advice for fiction and nonfiction writers. This invaluable reference offers easy access to stratagems and tried-and-true literary shortcuts that help writers save time, improve style and avoid common pitfalls. Whether a beginner or student, amateur or professional, readers will refer time and again to David Carroll's practical tips for: writing with expression; improving structure; correcting and rewriting with greater ...