Award-winning television writer David Carroll has put together an indispensable reference manual packed with advice for fiction and nonfiction writers. This invaluable guide offers easy access to ingenious devices and tried-and-true literary shortcuts that will help every kind of writer save time, improve style, and avoid common pitfalls. Whether you're a beginner or a student, an amateur or a professional, you will refer often to practical tips on:
* more colorful, expressive writing * improving structure * using stylistic tricks * correcting and rewriting with greater efficiency * developing "Writer's Logic" and dealing with writer's block * avoiding the hazards of burnout, boredom, and lack of motivation * reworking scholarly prose for improved clarity
Chock-full of information and guidance, A Manual of Writer's Tricks is a book that should be kept on every writer's desk, alongside the dictionary and thesaurus.
The bane of the bookstore appearance, for many touring authors, is the post-reading Q&A. "What time of day do you write?" is a typical question. "Do you use a computer, or pencil and paper?" If only the audience members could figure out whether morning or afternoon is best, laptop or No. 2 lead, then they, too, could write a great American novel. If only they knew the tricks that published authors know.
So it's understandable that David L. Carroll called his book A Manual of Writer's Tricks. There are tricks here--what to do when you're stuck, how to write about dry subjects, how to find authentic period words, how to improve your opening (try cutting your first page altogether, Carroll advises, as it's often the victim of "stage fright"). Carroll's quotations by other writers spruce up his text smartly. There is probably plenty of information in this book that would be of use to the beginning writer. But it is all so haphazardly and superficially presented that one could hardly deem it, as the book's subtitle purports, "essential advice." And some of the recommendations, such as avoiding "frequent repetition of a character's name by varying names and descriptions," seem outright wrong. Even more, one wishes Carroll had taken his own advice and trimmed some of the excess verbiage off this already slim volume. It's hard to trust a writer who hasn't made sure that he himself has homed in on (not, horrors, as he writes here, "honed in on") all the right words. Jane Steinberg
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Page after page of practical, useful advice:
Like the other reviewers of this book I was amazed by this collection of writing tips.
The book is loaded with two to four paragraph recommendations on topics including style, structure, colorful writing, revision, writing exercises, word choice.
Ample exercises are given where appropriate. This book is easy to read and you feel that the author is right there sitting next to you as you read the book. He's gently giving you tips on improving your writing, unlike the tough commands of Strunk and... more info
For what it is, extremely well done:
This book is page after page of distilled advice on writing. No amusing anecdotes. No inspirational thoughts. These suggestions could be found in more verbose books, but as a quick reference this one is hard to beat.
The Illuminated Simplicity of Useful Principle:
I have just finished reading, for the first time, one of the best books on writing craft I have read to date: "A Manual of Writer's Tricks" by David L. Carroll. I was already recommending it to others when I had not read more than ten pages. This is the craft of writing reduced to the simplicity of useful principle. Those principles are accompanied by sufficient relevant analysis and precision example to illuminate those very same principles; and thus they are useful "tricks" indeed. The author has rendered... more info
A great deal of value and insight:
In A Manual Of Writer's Tricks: Essential Advice For Fiction And Nonfiction Writers, David Carroll (Emmy Award- winning television writer and author of twenty-five books, including How To Prepare Your Manuscript For A Publisher) successfully collaborates with Sheree Bykofsky (literary agent and co-executive editor of the New York Public Library Desk Reference) to provide essential tips, tricks and techniques for aspiring fiction and nonfiction writers seeking to save time, improve their style, and avoid... more info
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