I took Stein with me to Monkey Joe’s and settled into a black leather vibrating chair in an area devoted to parents, grandparents and other responsible adults while the men’s semi-finals at Wimbledon played on one TV screen and some guys tossed a basketball on the other. My three grandsons scampered towards the inflated jumpy things and I focused on Stein.
Stein on Writing is another book I go to for a creative transfusion or craft update. I wouldn’t have known about Sol Stein if Marilyn, my writing friend, hadn’t warned me one day to be good to my reader. Keeping the reader curious, aroused, entertained, satisfied is the goal of good writing. Hmm, sounds like good advice for lovers as well. But hey we’re talking about writing here—as does Stein, including both fiction and non-fiction. His book is not about writing theory but “usable solutions—how to fix writing that is flawed, how to improve writing that is good, how to create interesting writing in the first place.” I can vouch that he delivers on those promises.
I was getting Stein’s take on editing, which is what I’m doing now with my own book when I’m not at Monkey Joe’s. In spite of the din around me, I devoured both chapters on revisions of fiction and non-fiction plus reread several of my favorite sections of Stein on Writing before I led three sweaty boys out of Monkey Joe’s.
Some advice on editing from Stein:
- Is the opening scene sufficiently visual to be seen by the reader and provoke curiosity?
- Do summarized areas lose the reader’s attention? If so, convert summarized material to scenes or shorten.
- Is there occasional tension or suspenseful interest created by withholding information or asking a question?
- Eliminate most adverbs and adjectives.
- Cut clichés.
- Replace or cut similes and metaphors that don’t work.
- Vary the length of sentences.
- Make every word count.
- Fix major problems before beginning a front to back, page-by-page revision. (worth reading this section of his book for an explanation)
What else would you add to the list?
Getting Older: Charting the Uncharted 
Great post, Marianna. Excellent advice. And good concentration on your part–to be able to focus, read, and retain in all that boy fray!
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I’m delighted you can be so creative in a place like Monkey Joe’s, a place I’ve never heard of, but have checked out online just now. Judging from the photos on their website it would probably ignite my ever ready monkey mind! I’m the person who can’t write even when music is playing in the background. So kudos to you.
Several books I find helpful and would like to add to your list are:
Telling True Stories, a Nonfiction Writers’ Guide, edited by Mark Kramer and Wendy Call (it sits on my nightstand) and
Writing the Memoir byJudith Barrington. Recently discovered I have three copies so I must really like it.
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I have those books too, Linda. Now if I could retain all the information from all the how-to-write books I have——.
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