{"id":1728,"date":"2012-07-11T22:55:21","date_gmt":"2012-07-12T03:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/?p=1728"},"modified":"2012-07-11T22:55:22","modified_gmt":"2012-07-12T03:55:22","slug":"twenty-years-ago-i-wish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/11\/twenty-years-ago-i-wish\/","title":{"rendered":"Twenty Years Ago I Wish"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wish I had read this book twenty years ago. It existed, but I was unaware of it. There may be others equally good or better, but I don’t know of them. I do know that if I had read it twenty years ago, I would have read it several times since, and my writing would have been better for it.<\/p>\n

There are probably many boring books about writing in the world. Writing with Style <\/em>is not one of them. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I laughed out loud frequently. I did not want the book to end. Why? Because the book itself was an example of what it was trying to teach: how to write so that people want to read what you write.<\/p>\n

For example, the author suggested that surprise is a valuable element in the writer’s toolbox. And he used it effectively many times. \"style-trimble\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I will never forget his chapter on revising. And it’s only 8 lines<\/em> long.<\/p>\n

The “Fundamentals” section includes chapters on openers, diction, superstitions, and proofreading. The “Odds & Ends” section includes such things as a chapter on punctuation, but if you ‘re not ready for a rather lengthy discussion of the rules and why they exist, you can skip it. The last 25 pages are quotes from writers about writing.<\/p>\n

The book is filled with great quotes, helpful tips, and personal examples. I read the second edition, which was published on the 25th anniversary of the first edition, and I felt like I was enjoying the fruits of 25 years of continued learning, revising, and improving the book. As I go to check the link on Amazon, I see a 3rd edition<\/a> is available (and the price is much too high for a thin paperback). The 2nd edition<\/a> is available used for much less.<\/p>\n

I’d like to require this for every class I ever teach in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wish I had read this book twenty years ago. It existed, but I was unaware of it. There may be others equally good or better, but I don’t know of them. I do know that if I had read it twenty years ago, I would have read it several times since, and my writing\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,46,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-reading","category-things-i-like"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toddbolen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}