"10th anniversary edition , featuring five new tools"-- Front cover.

"Originally published in hardcover by Little, Brown and Company, September 2006. First Little, Brown Spark paperback edition, January 2008. Revised Little, Brown Spark paperback edition, September 2016."--title page verso.

Includes index.

Includes excerpt from The art of x-ray reading.

Preface to the Tenth Anniversary Edition -- Introduction : A nation of writers -- Part One. Nuts and Bolts -- Tool 1. Begin sentences with subjects and verbs -- Tool 2. Order words for emphasis -- Tool 3. Activate your verbs -- Tool 4. Be passive-aggressive -- Tool 5. Watch those adverbs -- Tool 6. Take it easy on the -ings -- Tool 7. Fear not the long sentence -- Tool 8. Establish a pattern, then give it a twist -- Tool 9. Let punctuation control pace and space -- Tool 10. Cut big, then small -- Part Two. Special Effects -- Tool 11. Prefer the simple over the technical -- Tool 12. Give key words their space -- Tool 13. Play with words, even in serious stories -- Tool 14. Get the name of the dog -- Tool 15. Pay attention to names -- Tool 16. Seek original images -- Tool 17. Riff on the creative language of others -- Tool 18. Set the pace with sentence length -- Tool 19. Vary the lengths of paragraphs -- Tool 20. Choose the number of elements with a purpose in mind -- Tool 21. Know when to back off and when to show off -- Tool 22. Climb up and down the ladder of abstraction -- Tool 23. Tune your voice -- Part Three. Blueprints -- Tool 24. Work from a plan -- Tool 25. Learn the difference between reports and stories -- Tool 26. Use dialogue as a form of action -- Tool 27. Reveal traits of character -- Tool 28. Put odd and interesting things next to each other -- Tool 29. Foreshadow dramatic events and powerful conclusions -- Tool 30. To generate suspense, use internal cliffhangers -- Tool 31. Build your work around a key question -- Tool 32. Place gold coins along the path -- Tool 33. Repeat, repeat, and repeat -- Tool 34. Write from different cinematic angles -- Tool 35. Report and write for scenes -- Tool 36. Mix narrative modes -- Tool 37. In short works, don't waste a syllable -- Tool 38. Prefer archetypes to stereotypes -- Tool 39. Write toward an ending -- Part Four. Useful Habits -- Tool 40. Draft a mission statement for your work -- Tool 41. Turn procrastination into rehearsal -- Tool 42. Do your homework well in advance -- Tool 43. Read for both form and content -- Tool 44. Save string -- Tool 45. Break long projects into parts -- Tool 46. Take an interest in all crafts that support your work -- Tool 47. Recruit your own support group -- Tool 48. Limit self-criticism in early drafts -- Tool 49. Learn from your critics -- Tool 50. Own the tools of your craft -- Part Five. Bonus Tools -- Tool 51. Take advantage of narrative numbers -- Tool 52. Express your best thought in the shortest sentence -- Tool 53. Match your diction to your writing purpose -- Tool 54. Create a mosaic of detail to reveal character -- Tool 55. Look for the "inciting incident" to kick-start your story -- Afterword -- Acknowledgments -- Writing tools quick list -- Index.

Roy Peter Clark distills decades of experience into 55 tools that will help any writer become more fluent and effective. This book covers everything from the most basic ("Tool 5 : Watch those adverbs") to the more complex ("Tool 34 : Turn your notebook into a camera") and provides more than 200 examples from literature and journalism to illustrate the concepts. For students, aspiring novelists, and writers of memos, e-mails, PowerPoint presentations, and love letters, here are 55 tools.