Writing book revew: Confessions of a Freelance Penmonkey

Title: Confessions of a Freelance Penmonkey
Author: Chuck Wendig
Publisher: Terribleminds, 2011. 338 pages.
Source: Purchased

Summary: 
This collection of 50+ essays covers many aspects of writing and the writing life, from why you should never be a writer, to why being a writer is amazing, to how to edit the living daylights out of your MS. It is profane, exaggerated, and totally inspiring.

My Review:
I guess I gave it away with the last sentence of the summary: the book is motivating. I didn't think every essay in the book was inspiring or fit me and my situation, but in general, when Wendig starts talking about writing, I have to listen--and usually to laugh before I get down to thinking seriously about what applies and how it matters.

This book is one of a set of 8 e-books on writing, collections of essays posted on Chuck Wendig's blog, Terribleminds.com, over the years. Many in this book were written when he was just starting out, not as a writer (he clearly had been doing that for many years), but as a novelist. He added some updates to the essays, in a few cases changing things to reflect what he's learned since, or adding bits of advice he left out. The result is about what you'd expect: unlike his traditionally published writing book, The Kick-Ass Writer (see review), the book is a bit rough and uneven. The advice is still good, and if you enjoy his style, will get you moving.

My biggest complaint is that I'd rather have the books on paper. I need to mark useful bits, and dog-ear pages, write my own notes, and all the things that you can only *sort of* do with an ebook.

Recommendation:
Chuck Wendig isn't for everyone. He's foul-mouthed, in an imaginative and exuberant way that you will either enjoy or possibly hate, but is hard to ignore (sometimes he makes me squirm. Mostly, I am merely in awe that anyone can come up with that many ways to cuss). If that sort of thing bothers you, don't go here (or to his blog). If you can live with the language, though, the advice is (as far as I can tell) generally sound, and usually helps me to sit down and get to work. 

 

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Full Disclosure: I purchased Confessions of a Freelance Penmonkey with my own hard-earned money, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising." 

Writing Book Review: Editing Made Easy

Not the right cover

Title: Editing Made Easy: Simple Rules for Effective Writing
Author: Bruce Kaplan
Publisher: Upper Access, Inc., Book Publishers, 2012 (Revised & expanded U.S. edition); 112 pages
Source: Library

Review:
In addition to the title and subtitle (annoyingly all in lower case, which I find very weird for a book about getting everything right when writing), this book has the statement on the cover, "A friendly, practical guide for writers, students, business executives, Web developers--and anyone else who wants to write well." That is a decent summary of the book, which offers an extremely brief and easy-to-read summary of some key issues that will make your writing stronger. Editing Made Easy has a noticeable bias to journalistic writing, and scarcely acknowledges that matters can be different for fiction.

I found that bias annoying, especially as there were some examples (particularly in the section on pronouns) that came out clunky. I get the need to make pronouns actually align with the right subject, but repeating names too often is inelegant. Find a better way. And an insistence on shorter and simpler sentences is not all bad, but a writer of fiction needs to remember that there are times to take a different approach. I'm more of the "mix it up" school of writing that believes flow is optimized by using both long and short sentences and paragraphs. Again, I think this reflects the journalistic bias of the book.

Overall, however, the book offers a quick and simple reference for areas in which many writers go wrong: commonly misused or confused words (I LOVE lists that I can go to in a hurry to find out if I mean stationary or stationery, since I can't remember from one time to the next!), basics of punctuation, avoiding the passive voice, and some commonly overused words. I added a couple to my standard late-stage-editing searches: "of the" and "that" in particular, though again, not every instance of "of the" needs to be replaced with a possessive.

The book is very short and easy to read, so my time commitment was small (and I read it during a shift when I had to be sitting around in the library looking sort of official, so it worked well). I probably wouldn't recommend this for accomplished writers, but anyone who feels a bit insecure about some of the rules and regs could find it helpful to have around as a reference.

Mr. Kaplan really ought to find a better designer, though. Printing all the titles (of chapters as well as on the cover) in lower case is just wrong on a book of this sort.

Recommendation: 
For those who want a quick reference for tricky spellings and usages, or a fast review of things like active and passive voice.

Full Disclosure: I checked Editing Made Easy out of my local library, and received nothing from the writer or publisher in exchange for my honest review.  The opinions expressed are my own and those of no one else.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."