My aunt bought me this book for Christmas, along with a bottle of whisky. Good aunt, the best combination I could have asked for... Whisky and Words! She knows that I like writing, indeed she's volunteered to read some of my work. What she said was, amongst other nice things, this:
"Baz, if I didn't know you, I'd be scared of you"
Glad to know that I can be that powerful!
But anyway, this is the book. I've read a few books on the subject before but not one quite like this. Instead of giving rules as to how to write and what to do in order to get published it simply shows 200 excerpts of ill written prose and comments on what mistakes have been written (and exaggerated) and the possible consequences of writing in that style. In that respect I found it hugely useful.
The only drawback I could find with it was that In the last quarter or so I was beginning to feel as if I was being told not to do something that I had previously been told to do. But I never went back to check.
However it is well written, albeit in an American dialect (no such thing as 'English US'!) and so there are missing letters aplenty but I'll forgive that for its usefulness. It feels like you're reading through a text with somebody next to you, pointing things out an explaining it to you. It's written as if they were talking to you and that's an approach I like, because I'm going to need lots of help to get the editing and publishing ball rolling if I finish a first draft!
Or course, there already is a first, second, third and fourth copy of my script 'The Last of the Angels' but I'm talking about a novel. So if you're like me and want to write, get this book.
Keep smiling,
Sx
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