Welcome to Litsy!

A classic with good reason: funny, intelligent, sensible, quirky, and passionate. Concerned with mastery of fiction as a complex art; it addresses structure and common patterns without encouraging formulaic writing. Also, I think this is the only writing book I‘ve read that contains — right at the end — a reminder that words have power, that a good writer tries to avoid doing harm and tries to inspire readers instead. A definite pick! 👍

“To read well, one also needs a certain kind of mastery.”

Enjoying this book so far, but I do tend to like books that start off with some snark and continue by saying that rule-following is overrated. 😁

Taking a break at mile 43 of today's heavenly long bike ride, and just wrote the first paragraph of a chapter -- and really excited by it. #Dread #Regret #Foreshadowing #CrazyOminous #amwriting @DoubledayBooks

This is a widely acknowledged classic in the teaching-of-writing genre. Published in 1982, it hasn't aged as well as one might hope (compare Strunk & White), but the author is up-front about his beliefs and preferred texts. I could see myself returning to it for some of the exercises and notes on technique (especially what to avoid!).

Beautiful day here--hope your weather is lovely too.

#bookmail --- An addition to my #writing collection. Any #writer or #poet Littens out there with recommendations?