Writing Advice From the Book Doctor

Here's some good advice from John Shore, who blogs at crosswalk.com. This is a short excerpt from a longer posting:

The Book Doctor Will Needle You Now

My last post, A Would-Be Writers Asks: "MUST I Go to College?" made me think of a job I took earlier this year doctoring a novel. If you don't know, "doctoring" a novel means taking someone's novel and either outright fixing it yourself, or directing its author on what he or she needs to do in order to fix it themselves.

It's the most intrusive and inclusive kind of editing; it covers every aspect of the book at hand: pace, setting, characters, dialogue, wardrobe malfunctions, etc. I sometimes take on this sort of work if I believe in the author, or think the book has potential.

Below are excerpts from the last summary report I wrote for a would-be novelist (a fellow whom I'm proud to say took my advice, returned to college, and is now well on his way to making it as a writer of literary fiction).

Back to basics

Just like a physicist must first master basic math skills, so a writer must first master punctuation, grammar, syntax and usage. You simply have to know this stuff, cold. I don’t know how you’re going to learn it as thoroughly as you need to---if you’re going to take an adult ed class in English composition, or buy some style or usage guides and study them, or what.

I can tell you what I did---though I wouldn’t recommend it. I taught that stuff to myself. I spent about three years with my nose buried in "The Chicago Manual of Style," and Kate Turabian’s classic style manual, and the "Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage," and the AP Style Guide, and about a zillion other such titles. (One of the best, most comprehensive books of this sort available today is "Quick Access" by Lynn Quitman Troyka. It’s awesome. If you’re only gonna have one such book---and don’t, of course---make it this one.)

I wouldn’t recommend teaching yourself this material because the best way to learn anything so vast and complex is systematically, which is pretty much the whole purpose of (shudder!) school. I think you want to take some classes in English composition. You need to know what constitutes a complete sentence; the basic rules of punctuation; the pitfalls and earmarks of sloppy syntax. However you go about it, do not try to short cut around learning this stuff, because without it I guarantee you will never get off the ground as a writer....

Reading is really the best way to learn the basics of writing. If you read enough, for long enough, after awhile you just know what does and doesn’t make for a sound, clean sentence; you understand the functions of punctuation; you come to have a solid feel for syntax and usage.

Read any modern master: Updike, Vonnegut, Hemingway, John Irving, Steinbeck. Read it hard. Study it. Take a class or two (or ten) on English literature. Give it a some time. It’ll be worth it, because once you know grammar and syntax you'll be in possession of all the bricks necessary to build yourself virtually any building you want....