Book Recommendation: “Writing Tools”

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I recommend Writing Tools, by Roy Peter Clark, for many reasons, one of which is the first chapter, “Begin sentences with subjects and verbs.” Don’t call me a hypocrite, if you’ve read something I wrote before 2012. I didn’t know any better, before I read Writing Tools, so read something I wrote more recently.

I don’t mean to imply that Steinbeck’s adherence to the general rule is my model for writing. If it were, I would have learned little from the first chapter of Writing Tools. But that rule I now hold in high esteem: Keep subject and verb near the beginning, most of the time.

With all the virtue in that ideal (making sentences more clear), I still am entranced by Melville’s opening in Moby Dick. If I recall correctly, the second sentence begins with, “Some years ago, having little money in my purse, and nothing to interest me onshore . . .” How I love that form of sentence! Beginning to read such a novel, I can snuggle the small of my back into the pillow on my couch and put up my feet, before the story action calls away my attention. It gives me time to enjoy the anticipation.

With all that said, if I recall correctly, the first sentence in Moby Dick is, “Call me Ishmael,” a perfect preface for a long periodic sentence. The key is in the balance from sentence to sentence.

Call me impatient, but with little time for long novels and almost no interest in details involving whaling ships and their sailors and captains, I don’t think I ever finished reading Moby Dick. But I began my second reading of Writing Tools immediately after my first reading of it. If you are a less-experienced writer than me, your journey of discovery in Clark’s book will be worth what little money you have in your purse.

And remember, keep subjects and verbs near the beginnings of your sentences . . . most of the time.

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