This book is a solid supplement to ELEMENTS OF STYLE and Stephen King's ON WRITING. I'd recommend it to any serious writer.
My Notes
Look into ON WRITING WELL.Tools divided into four boxes: Nuts and Bolts; Special Effects; Blueprints; Useful Habits.
Nuts and Bolts
1. Begin sentences with subjects and verbs.2. Order words for emphasis. Place strong words at the beginning and at the end.
3. Activate your verbs.
4. Be passive-aggressive. Use passive verbs to showcase the "victim" of the action.
5. Watch those adverbs. Use them to change the meaning of the verb. "She smiled sadly."
6. Take it easy on the -ings. Prefer the simple present or past.
7. Fear not the long sentence.
THE RINGS OF SATURN
A WRITER'S REFERENCE
8. Establish a pattern, then give it a twist.
9. Let punctuation control pace and space. Learn the rules, but realize you have more options than you think.
10. Cut big, then small. Prune the big limbs, then shake out the dead leaves.
Special Effects
11. Prefer the simple over the technical. Use shorter words, sentences, and paragraphs at points of complexity. Defamiliarization. Familiarization.
12. Give key words their space. Do not repeat a distinctive word unless you intend a specific effect. Word territory.
13. Play with words, even in serious stories. Choose words the average writer avoids but the average reader understands.
14. Get the name of the dog. Dig for the concrete and specific, details that appeal to the senses.
15. Pay attention to names. Interesting names attract the writer--and the reader.
16. Seek original images. Reject cliches and first-level creativity.
17. Riff on the creative language of others. Make word lists, free-associate, be surprised by language.
18. Set the pace with sentence length. Vary sentences to influence the reader's speed.
Three reasons to slow pace: To simplify the complex, to create suspense, to focus on the emotional truth.
19. Vary the lengths of paragraphs. Go short or long--or make a turn--to match your intent.
20. Choose the number of elements with a purpose in mind. One, two, three, or four: each sends a secret message to the reader.
Use one for power; two for comparison, contrast; three for completeness, wholeness, roundness; for or more to list, inventory, compile, and expand.
21. Know when to back off and when to show off. When the topic is most serious, understate; when least serious, exaggerate.
22. Climb up and down the ladder of abstraction. Learn when to show, when to tell, and when to do both.
"Can you give me an example," to go down; "What does that mean," to go up.
23. Tune your voice. Read stories aloud.
Blueprints
24. Work from a plan. Index the big parts of your work.
25. Learn the difference between reports and stories. Use one to render information, the other to render experience.
Who becomes Character.
What becomes Action.
Where becomes Setting.
When becomes Chronology.
Why becomes Cause or Motive.
How becomes Process.
Rising and falling actions, complications, points of insight, and resolutions.
26. Use dialogue as a form of action. Dialogue advances narrative; quotes delay it.
27. Reveal traits of character. Show character-istics through scenes, details, and dialogue.
28. Put off and interesting things next to each other. Help the reader learn from contrast.
29. Foreshadow dramatic events and powerful conclusions. Plant important clues early.
30. To generate suspense, use internal cliffhangers. To propel readers, make them wait.
31. Build your work around a key question. Stories need an engine, a questions that the action answers for the reader.
32. Place gold coins along the path. Reward the reader with high points, especially in the middle.
33. Repeat, repeat, and repeat. Purposeful repetition links the parts.
34. Write from different cinematic angles. Turn your notebook into a camera.
35. Report and write for scenes. Then align them in a meaningful sequence.
36. Mix narrative modes. Combine story forms using the broken line.
----[Inform]------[Analyze]-------[Explain]------->
37. In short works, don't waste a syllable. Shape short writing with wit and polish.
38. Prefer archetypes to stereotypes. Use subtle symbols, not crashing cymbals.
Examples: The journey there and back; winning the prize; winning or losing the loved one; loss and restoration; the blessing becomes the curse; overcoming obstacles; the wasteland restored; rising from the ashes; the ugly duckling; the emperor has no clothes; descent into the underworld.
39. Write toward an ending. Help readers close the circle of meaning.
Useful Habits
40. Draft a mission statement for your work. To sharpen your learning, write about your writing.41. Turn procrastination into rehearsal. Plan and write it first in your head.
42. Do your homework well in advance. Prepare yourself for the expected--and unexpected.
1. What's the point?
2. Why is this story being told?
3. What does it say about life, about the world, about the times we live in?
43. Read for both form and content. Examine the machinery beneath the text.
44. Save string. For big projects, save scraps others would toss.
45. Break long projects into parts. Then assemble the pieces into something whole.
46. Take an interest in all crafts that support your work. To do your best, help others do their best.
Copyeditors; Photographers; Designers.
47. Recruit your own support group. Create a corps of helpers for feedback.
48. Limit self-criticism in early drafts. Turn it loose during revision.
Meditation, imitation, practice, and recreation.
49. Learn from your critics. Tolerate even unreasonable criticism.
De gustibus non est disputandum--there can be no arguing about matters of taste.
Explain what you were trying to accomplish.
50. Own the tools of your craft. Build a writing workbench to store your tools.
Idea. --> Collect. --> Focus. --> Draft. --> Clarify.
Sniff. Explore. Collect. Focus. Select. Order. Draft. Revise.
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