Tell It Slant: Creating, Refining, and Publishing Creative Nonfiction was written by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola (2019). A Braided Heart: Essays on Writing and Form was written by Brenda Miller (2021). Great books! It's all good.
BTW After 40 years as a technical writer with "Omit needless words!" as my mantra, I've spent the last few…
Tell It Slant: Creating, Refining, and Publishing Creative Nonfiction was written by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola (2019). A Braided Heart: Essays on Writing and Form was written by Brenda Miller (2021). Great books! It's all good.
BTW After 40 years as a technical writer with "Omit needless words!" as my mantra, I've spent the last few years trying to unwind from all that in my own writing. So advice on when to let it be or not would be great. Tuned in at Part 1 of "The Incident," and I am really enjoying this. Thanks!
Hi Charlie. About a year ago following a long spell of editing I had the feeling I was stripping my own writing back to below zero, so I tried an exercise in Ursula K. Le Guin's "Steering the Craft." After a few example paragraphs (Kipling, Twain, Zora Neale Hurston, Molly Gloss, etc.) she suggests "being gorgeous." Her focus is on writing crafted for the ear, i.e. to be read aloud, but for me that word "gorgeous" unlocked something – like being given permission to put on diamonds after wearing sackcloth. I still love the (sci-fi) paragraph I wrote. It sparkles! Try it – you might enjoy dressing your prose up too...
I loved the 'being gorgeous' exercise in Steering the Craft and found all Ursula le Guin's exercises and explanations brilliant. She's a wonderful writer.
Hi Em. Thanks for your suggestion. I've always had so much respect for Ursula Le Guin and a while back a writer friend suggested "Steering the Craft" but I didn't follow up. After your suggestion, I'm definitely going to get that book. Thanks so much!
I also loved the Le Guin. I felt it really changed the way I thought about sentences. The exercises aren't easy and I still like to go back to them from time to time to see what they unlock.
Tell It Slant: Creating, Refining, and Publishing Creative Nonfiction was written by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola (2019). A Braided Heart: Essays on Writing and Form was written by Brenda Miller (2021). Great books! It's all good.
BTW After 40 years as a technical writer with "Omit needless words!" as my mantra, I've spent the last few years trying to unwind from all that in my own writing. So advice on when to let it be or not would be great. Tuned in at Part 1 of "The Incident," and I am really enjoying this. Thanks!
Hi Charlie. About a year ago following a long spell of editing I had the feeling I was stripping my own writing back to below zero, so I tried an exercise in Ursula K. Le Guin's "Steering the Craft." After a few example paragraphs (Kipling, Twain, Zora Neale Hurston, Molly Gloss, etc.) she suggests "being gorgeous." Her focus is on writing crafted for the ear, i.e. to be read aloud, but for me that word "gorgeous" unlocked something – like being given permission to put on diamonds after wearing sackcloth. I still love the (sci-fi) paragraph I wrote. It sparkles! Try it – you might enjoy dressing your prose up too...
I loved the 'being gorgeous' exercise in Steering the Craft and found all Ursula le Guin's exercises and explanations brilliant. She's a wonderful writer.
Couldn't agree more, Heather.
Hi Em. Thanks for your suggestion. I've always had so much respect for Ursula Le Guin and a while back a writer friend suggested "Steering the Craft" but I didn't follow up. After your suggestion, I'm definitely going to get that book. Thanks so much!
Most welcome. Have fun!
I also loved the Le Guin. I felt it really changed the way I thought about sentences. The exercises aren't easy and I still like to go back to them from time to time to see what they unlock.
Yeah I must do that too, Ellis. You’re right, they aren’t easy. But worth every hard yard.
The Writer's Portable Mentor by Priscilla Long (2010, republished in 2018). She covers different structures in writing including collage and braiding.
TX Mary^^
Well, you could look at Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style", timeless, readable, enjoyable, useful.