Publisher's Synopsis
Writing well is romance between pen and paper. Or love with a laptop. For romance and love, no toolbox is needed. For writing, we recommend one.
A toolbox for writers containing the necessities: strong verbs, specific nouns, juicy adjectives, few adverbs, uncommon common words, and often the use of a synonym rather than the exact word choice. We get you a toolbox and a bonus of famous works in the print edition (by Plato, Mark Twain, Edgar Allen Poe, James Joyce, and Earnest Hemingway.)
We show there are no rules, only guidelines. We show unity is achievable. We show writing is rhythm, surprise, removing words every editing pass, creating paragraphs at times that are in 3-act structure, encapsulating thoughts in crisp, daring, well-described, and unusual ways.
We explore idea, title and first sentence, word choice, show don't tell, character, parts of speech, concision, motif, dialogue, point-of-view, creativity, and more.
We show by example. Here's one:
Character. Characters and character arcs (the change in a character during a story) can be book-long or wrapped up in a few words. Use some flair when describing a character:
Even a waitress appearing at dinner without a speaking part can reflect something important in the story by using a few words to describe the waitress and her arc. This could be called a John Prine arc-in one song, Prine nailed an arc in eleven words,
"She was a level-headed woman on the road to alcohol."
We cover foreshadowing and all of the other suspects. Foreshadowing. A hint to what will happen. Be direct, or subtle, or prophetic. Perhaps to use symbols. Or give a hint that leads the reader astray on a red herring (Often used in mysteries.)
With Shakespeare, in Romeo and Juliet, the balcony scene, Romeo suggests death at the hands of the guards would be better than a life without Juliet. We glimpse the future. In Tolkien's work, as a passel of characters enters the forest, the author strongly foreshadowed as much as anyone ever has in literature when he wrote in all capital letters, "STAY ON THE PATH." Chekov foreshadowed in his famous scene by having a pistol sitting on a coffee table. The way Chekov put it was, "If you see a gun in the second act, it must go off in the third."
Another example, our section on the best element of writing:
Surprise. Surprise is the best and we talk lots about it.
And we have fun in our guide. We've included the Texan at Harvard preposition story.
For someone new to writing, or for the expert who is looking for a fresh tip or two, this quick guide will launch thousands of words. Whether you're writing fiction, non-fiction, essays, articles, and even poetry, this guide will accelerate your words into the minds of readers. For they who are looking for increased sales or better publishing opportunities, this guide might be dollars and sense.
