...You should read "A Writer's Coach: An Editor's Guide to Words That
Work," just published by Pantheon in a handsome hardback edition.
This book represents the practical wisdom of
Jack
Hart, an editor and writing coach at
The Oregonian, and I meant it when
I offered this blurb: "No newspaper editor in America has done
more to inspire good writing than Jack Hart." With
Tom Hallman,
Jack forms one of the most successful writer/editor teams in America,
producing work that has won both
ASNE Distinguished Writing Awards and
a
Pulitzer Prize.
Jack is one of the few editors I know who represents a triple threat: He can edit, he can teach and he can write. That
combination should command the special attention of all of us who want
to grow in the craft. I hope to share Jack's advice with you over
time, but for now I can best summarize the contents of "A Writer's Coach"
by listing his chapter titles:
- Method
- Process
- Structure
- Force
- Brevity
- Clarity
- Rhythm
- Humanity
- Color
- Voice
- Mechanics
- Mastery
Suffering from what Harold Bloom has described as "the anxiety of
influence," I tend to limit my reading while in the middle of a writing
project. So I held off on enjoying Jack's work while I was
drafting and revising "Writing Tools." Now that I've had a chance to
taste it, I'm delighted that our two books will enter the world
together as blood brothers.
