Read this book, and wrote this review on
Goodreads:
This book is interesting, and I think it contains some value. It's definitely very geared towards writing non-fiction, though, which I think isn't clearly explained in either the title or the synopsis.
As promised, the author explains the three "job descriptions" of an indie author: those of writing, editing, and revising. He starts out by explaining how to write a simple sentence, by asking the questions "Who? What? When? How? Why?" There are practical examples and exercises that he wants you to complete, and I think he talks down to the reader a lot. It's useful to remember these questions when constructing sentences, but honestly the sentences that come out of following his examples are far too simple and uninteresting for me to want to read them (once again, though, it probably works far better for non-fiction).
I did really enjoy the section on removing redundant words. Look at a really long, wordy paragraph, and remove all the words which do not add to the meaning. You can easily cut the length of the paragraph by 50% by doing this, making it far more interesting and easier to read. This is definitely something I will start doing!
There are also tips on editing your chapter, paragraph, and section headings, and making the information you wish to impart flow more easily. It's useful, but difficult to read, and a lot of it may be irrelevant to you depending on what you like to write.
I don't really have anything to add, other than what I said in my review. If you're just getting into writing, or are struggling to write, or write non-fiction, then it might be worth a read!
I'm mixings this up a little this month. Since last month was a long month, and we had a Bonus Crossword (which nobody won), I felt it inappropriate to do May's crossword puzzle immediately afterwards. So, I'm doing it now.
Feel free to print out this puzzle and try and solve it. If you get it right, send me your answers on Twitter or Facebook. If you're the first correct answer, I will mention you (and your Twitter handle, if you have one) on this blog next week. Good luck!
