100 Ways to Improve Your Writing - by Gary Provost
ISBN: 1984803689Date read: 2022-02-18
How strongly I recommend it: 2/10
(See my list of 360+ books, for more.)
Go to the Amazon page for details and reviews.
Another book recommended it, but it was so basic and introductory that I blew through it in an hour. Not for me. But if you are a beginning writer, maybe it would help a bit.
my notes
Pick out an object and see how many synonyms you can think of.
Getting started is the hardest part of writing. So write in large blocks of time.
Do writing exercises.
The lede is whatever it takes to lead your readers so deeply into your story or article that they will not turn back unless you stray from the path you have put them on.
A lede should be provocative.
It should have energy, excitement, an implicit promise that something is going to happen or that some interesting information will be revealed.
It should create curiosity, get the reader asking questions.
Your lede should give readers something to care about before it gives them dry background information.
Either you give the readers information that affects them directly, or you give them a human being with whom they can identify.
Cross out every sentence until you come to one you cannot do without. That is your beginning.
A topic sentence contains the thought that is developed throughout the rest of the paragraph.
A reader usually picks up a story because of content but too often puts it down because of style.
A few well-placed statistics will establish your credibility.
If they are accurate and comprehensible, they will show the reader that you have done your homework and know what you are talking about.
Don’t write about the new bookkeeping system. Write about how the new bookkeeping system will affect people.