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I finished reading Write and Revise for Publication, by Jack Smith, a week or so ago. I just got around tossing together the collage and offering my two cents (obviously). When I read, I desecrate the books perfect pages with my highlighter and pen, so it wasn’t hard finding some quotes that stuck out for the collage above.
The book has some strong themes running through it. It’s broken down into sixteen chapters, each one offering solid insights to push you down the writing path. I found the chapters on, “Rethinking Openings and Endings,” and, “Improving Style, Mood, and Tone,” to be the most helpful.
By far, the most tearfully disappointing chapter was the single chapter on marketing and publishing your work. I know the book doesn’t claim to be a marketing book, but much of this information seemed to be common knowledge – almost an afterthought.
This book is a pure how-to book. While some of the author commentary is inspiring, it is mostly instructional. This isn’t a bad thing. There has to be books out there that focus purely on the analytics of the craft – and this one does it well. Just don’t expect the author to grab you by the collar and shake inspiration out of you.
In the grand scheme of writing books, I’m not unhappy to own this one. There were some unique insights here and there. And honestly, that’s what it’s all about for me. If I can just take one useful tool from another writer, then they have proven to me their worth. You don’t have to give me the world, just give me one new way to look at it.
I‘m always looking for new books! Especially books about the craft. Is there one you were thinking about but haven’t pulled the trigger on buying yet? Let me know – my trigger finger is always itchy. Until tomorrow, keep reading, keep writing, and as always – stay sharp!
Corey Truax 
The Productive Authors Guide to Dictation: Speak Your Way to Higher (and Healthier!) Word Counts by Cindy Grigg.
Dictate Your Book: How to Write Your Book Faster, Better and Smarter by Monica Leonelle.
Dictation: Dictate Your Writing- Write Over 1,000,000 Words A Year Without Breaking A Sweat! (Writing Habits, Write Faster, Productivity, Speech Recognition Software, Dragon Naturally Speaking) by Kevin Gise.
The Writers Guide to Training Your Dragon: Using Speech Recognition Software to Dictate Your Book and Supercharge Your Writing Workflow (Dictation Mastery for PC and Mac) by Scott Baker
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Awesome suggestions! I will see if I can snag those used from the local bookstore, and if not, Amazon usually has some great used books that come from small businesses (and honestly, you can’t beat the prices when you buy used).
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They were pretty affordable when I bought them as eBooks. Another route is to use KDP or Kindle Unlimited… could bet getting the name wrong, but basically check it out from Amazon?
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Good review of the book, thanks! What was your largest take away from it, if you had to pick just one?
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Great question JR. My biggest takeaway was from his chapter on, “Rethinking Openings and Endings.” I actually highlighted a couple pretty decent blurbs I can share. One references space – so that’s a plus for you!
“An ending should open us up, in some way, to a world greater than the sum of the parts of the story. A good story gets us beyond a simple bromide. It provides both depth and range: Perhaps we saw only one planetary system before beginning the story; now we see a host of them” (p. 226)
And.
“As you revise your story or novel’s ending, look for a ways to make this ending more suggestive. If you can inspire your reader to think further about your story, to return to it, to wonder what it all means, that’s an accomplishment!” (p. 227).
For me, this section appealed to me because I am finishing my discovery draft of Wastelander, but also because my book is the first of series. Despite it being one of series, I wanted it to have a clear ending. I wanted the reader to want to want to come back to my world, but not be left with a cliffhanger (I hate those). So for me, crafting the ending has been very important to me and something I’ve been thinking about a lot. This is probably why this chapter impacted me the most.
Thanks for swinging in today and reading.
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Agreed, novels in a series should stand a lone as well….. later novels benefit from summaries and recaps. It IS, however, very difficult to get right. Many have tried, many have failed, but there CAN BE ONLY ONE!!! Mwhahaha, which of us will it be?
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In the quest for power, we often forget balance. With that being said, there can be two. As long as we can resist lopping each others heads off and getting infused with lightning….
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Woot, woot!!! Someone got the reference!!
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I’m just not as good with greens in any sense of the word. Your blog gives me a lot of that. I’m excited for when you start giving feedback on some marketing books.
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I’m going to be switching into that phase of research soon, so you can expect some book references and blogs geared in this direction. Thanks for dropping in today.
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The Storytelling Animal by Jonathan Gottschall does not discuss writing technique specifically, but he does present a unified theory of storytelling – where stories come from, how they shape us as humans and societies, and why they matter to us. As someone who views storytelling as both an art and the essential quality of humanity, this book helped me start my writing path at the very beginning 🙂
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This book sounds like a really good read, the concept appeals to me. I will snag a copy posthaste and throw it into the whirlpool (read it). Thanks for swinging in and sharing!
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You’re welcome! I’m really liking the in-depth nature of your blog so far. I just stumbled over here from another fellow writer’s blog. A lot of great (and helpful) content here!
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I’m glad you are enjoying wandering through the ramblings. I try to strike a balance between solid information and general tomfoolery. Sometimes the posts deviate one direction or the other it seems.
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Haha, well as long as you strike that balance in total, right?
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‘Bird by Bird’ by Anne Lamott. I remember seeing this in writers digest ages ago (when I still read it, when I still had time to read it), always thought I’d like to read it : )
Meno
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I will snag a copy of this book for sure! Thanks for suggesting it.
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