|
Last year, my writing teacher had me go through a fabulous book called On Writing Well, by William Zinsser. The book is divided into four sections: principles, methods, forms, and attitudes. In "principles", the author talks about words and their usage, style, simplicity, and eliminating "clutter" (unnecessary words). The second portion talks about methods, mainly the flow/outline of the article. In the third section, the author talks about different types of articles, such as interview, travel, memoir, sports, humor, and several others. And in the fourth portion, he talks about attitudes - about the "sound of your voice", the final product, decisions, and some other stuff.
Even though the book is about writing non-fiction, it is immensely helpful for fiction writers as well. My teacher showed us how learning to write different types of non-fiction would help us get better at writing certain aspects of fiction. For instance, writing a sports article can help you get better at writing battle scenes, interviews can help you get better at dialogue, and memoirs can build your skills in adding depth and emotion to your fiction.
You can get this little book for about $10 on Amazon and it's worth every penny. It's simple and easy to read but is full of helpful information. I enjoyed reading and learning from this book and I have to say that it's been one of the most helpful books I've read on writing.
|
Thank you for letting everyone know about it!
