Roy Peter Clark, author of Writing Tools: The Blog

Back in 2004, I celebrated my 25th year at The Poynter Institute by writing 50 short essays, each one describing an important writing strategy. Readers from across the globe helped me perfect these tools and encouraged me to develop them into a handy, inexpensive book. The result is "Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer," which is about to be published by Little, Brown and Co. My editor, Tracy Behar, has inspired me to expand these strategies for the widest possible audience; and the publisher is pricing the hardback at $19.99 (Amazon is offering an early discount -- you can find it here), making it affordable for students and professionals alike.

Work on the book is completed, but not my search for effective writing tools, or for interesting examples of good writing. Enter Writing Tools: The Blog. It will make available, at no charge, the "Quick List" of Writing Tools, exactly as it appears in the book. Then, three times a week, I'll offer a new example, a new tool, or a variation on one of the original 50.

As with all blogs, this one will be a work in progress. As you helped me sharpen the 50 tools, you'll have a chance to join the conversation, to offer your own favorite strategies, and to ask questions about the craft. (Click here to send me an e-mail with your suggestions.) Just for fun, my alter ego, Dr. Ink, will weigh in on occasion with his/her bombastic point of view.

In the beginning was the word, then came the book, then came the blog.