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Introduction: A Nation of Writers

Part One. NUTS AND BOLTS
1. Begin sentences with subjects and verbs.
2. Order words for emphasis.
3. Activate your verbs.
4. Be passive-aggressive.
5. Watch those adverbs.
6. Take it easy on the -ings.
7. Fear not the long sentence.
8. Establish a pattern, then give it a twist.
9. Let punctuation control pace and space.
10. Cut big, then small.

Part Two. SPECIAL EFFECTS
11. Prefer the simple over the technical.
12. Give key words their space.
13. Play with words, even in serious stories.
14. Get the name of the dog.
15. Pay attention to names.
16. Seek original images.
17. Riff on the creative language of others.
18. Set the pace with sentence length.
19. Vary the lengths of paragraphs.
20. Choose the number of elements with a purpose in mind.
21. Know when to back off and when to show off.
22. Climb up and down the ladder of abstraction.
23. Tune your voice.

Part Three. BLUEPRINTS
24. Work from a plan.
25. Learn the difference between reports and stories.
26. Use dialogue as a form of action.
27. Reveal traits of character.
28. Put odd and interesting things next to each other.
29. Foreshadow dramatic events and powerful conclusions.
30. To generate suspense, use internal cliffhangers.
31. Build your work around a key question.
32. Place gold coins along the path.
33. Repeat, repeat, and repeat.
34. Write from different cinematic angles.
35. Report and write for scenes.
36. Mix narrative modes.
37. In short works, don’t waste a syllable.
38. Prefer archetypes to stereotypes.
39. Write toward an ending.

Part Four. USEFUL HABITS
40. Draft a mission statement for your work.
41. Turn procrastination into rehearsal.
42. Do your homework well in advance.
43. Read for both form and content.
44. Save string.
45. Break long projects into parts.
46. Take an interest in all crafts that support your work.
47. Recruit your own support group.
48. Limit self-criticism in early drafts.
49. Learn from your critics.
50. Own the tools of your craft.

Afterword
Writing Tools Quick List

"What a nifty book! It's not only useful, central, wise, rigorous, and forgiving, it's also a riot."

"Thanks for writing Writing Tools! I recently won the William Randolph Hearst Foundation's Journalism Award for In-Depth Writing, and your book had and does have a significant impact on my writing. I remember writing the winning article with so many of your book's elements in mind (internal cliffhangers, gold coins, series of three with a twist, and many others). Although you weren't physically present, I can tell you your words and advice played an integral part of my story."

"In this terrific book, Roy Peter Clark . . . helps us see that what we secretly hoped is true—that any person, at any stage, can become a better writer. . . . Every writer should have this book on her desk. It’s destined to become a classic."

"For a long time, Roy Peter Clark has had more faith than anyone I know (including me) in the premise that people can be taught to write well. Now he has gone and written a book that shows exactly how. Writing Tools offers advice and lessons that will help me, my students, and anyone with the dream of becoming a better writer."

"In The Elements of Style, Professor William Strunk gaveled English usage to order, and E. B.White elevated its style. Now the ebullient Roy Peter Clark sets the lyrics of the language to playful music and lets it dance. His Writing Tools fits on the same shelf as Strunk and White and lends it some streetwise fun. . . . It’s not just a helpful handbook to sort out awkward writing. It’s a public service."

"What a relief to read a handbook about writing that stresses tools, not rules, that shows what you can do as a writer as opposed to what you should do. . . . The book . . . is beautifully carpentered, the prose equivalent of a Shaker table, which I predict will hold up to continued and hard use as the years go by as it mellows into both a classic and a keeper."

"Would that I had had Clark’s manual when I wrote my first book, Dead Man Walking. This book, replete with incisive techniques and strategies, also includes a mentor: Clark’s guiding voice is on every page.Writers couldn’t ask for a better teacher."

"Roy is the Obi-Wan Kenobi of writing teachers. . . . Like its author, Writing Tools is brilliant, openhearted, and indispensable; it’s easily one of the best books ever published about our craft."

"There are ‘born writers’ in this world, sometimes as many as two or three a century. The rest of us have to work at it. That means thinking analytically about the skills we need to acquire. Roy Clark has been doing just that for over thirty years and generously sharing his insights in the classroom, in the newsroom, and in his popular workshops. Now he has given writers of every kind fifty ‘tools’ to improve our work. Here’s a fifty-first: buy this book!"