Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction

There is a certain amount of learning how to write that comes through osmosis, first by reading widely and second by simply writing. At some point, however, the amount that one can discover by blundering about copying better writing and dissecting one’s resulting prose is exhausted. Professional help is needed.For those in academic settings, getting help with writing is much easier than for those outside the ivory tower. There is a writing center, a critical mass of people all trying to write better, and even classes that one can audit if time allows. For others, especially those who practice their writing largely in isolation, external helps are needed, often in the form of books about writing.Good Prose is such a book. It is co-written by Tracy Kidder, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, and his long-time editor, Richard Todd. The relationship they share is an unlikely situation in our contemporary setting. Most authors flit around between publications trying to scrape out a meager existence between online and print articles. Editors seem to change allegiances nearly as quickly, especially as the ability to edit seems to be much less significant to many people than the willingness to acquiesce to whatever the trendy political flavor of the day is. Kidder and Todd worked at The Atlantic together for decades. They collaborated on stories, articles, and even books. Some of those books took years to write.The result of the partnership between Kidder and Todd was more than a large literary output and a Pulitzer Prize. A friendship is evident that helped shape the way each other thought and the way the words were formed on the page. The actual writing advice in Good Prose at some points is less visible than the story of the relationship between an editor and a writer. That is to say, this is the sort of book that someone who had very little interest in writing or editing well could be enthralled by.The chapters flow as one might expect from a less narratival approach to teaching writing: discussions of narratives, memoirs, essays, the importance of facts (and the ability to negotiate them), issues of style and commercial viability, and the balance between conformity to standard usage and bending the rules. This isn’t Strunk and White’s twenty-five rules, though. One gets a strict list of applications and speed limits from that slim volume. Good Prose offers guidance, but more importantly, it offers a vision of what the writing life can be in the best of circumstances.On my first pass through the volume, I barely noticed the technical advice that authors provided in their collaboration. As I was reviewing the book to write this review the actual writing instruction became more apparent. What stuck out during my careful reading of the volume is the encouragement of a friendship around communicating to the world through the written word.If you are struggling with grammar, this may not be the book for you. (In fact, they point you toward a book they recommend on the topic.) However, if you are looking for encouragement in your own quest to continue writing, in your willingness to be edited, and in the hope that you can improve over time, then this is a book that delivers.This is an edited version of a review posted at Ethics and Culture.

Though I have 3 self-published and 2 soon to be released traditionally published books, I consider myself to be a mostly untrained writer. To that end, I try to read every book about the art of writing I can such as Stephen King's "On Writing."This book is both inspirational and educational. Some reviewers have complained that the friendship narrative is too strong and that the educational aspect is too light. I rather enjoyed the balance. This is not a how-to guide; rather it is a series of the most important epiphanies that a writer and his editor experienced during a decades long partnership.Here are my takeaways:- "imagine for the reader an intelligence at least equal to the intelligence you imagine for yourself"- "Good writing creates a dialogue between writer and reader, with the imagined reader at moments questioning, criticizing, and sometimes, you hope, assenting."- "Beginnings [of books, articles, etc.] are an exercise in limits."- "Clarity does not always mean brevity or simplicity."- "[Putting most important facts of a story first] translates poorly to longer forms of writing."- "The most important conflict often happens within a character, or within the narrator."- "Revelation, someone's learning something, is what transforms event into story."- "Point of view is a place to stand, but more than that, a way to think and feel."- "As a rule, the smaller the canvas, the more intrusive the first person is likely to be."- "Writers of fiction and nonfiction still have the distinctive and necessary task of getting the reader to do the necessary work of imagining... what we want are essences."- "Above all, setting tells what is at issue."- "Kidder discovers his stories by writing and rewriting them."- "The fundamental elements of a story's structure are proportion and order."- "the good and honest memoir is neither revenge nor self-justification, neither self-celebration nor self-abnegation. It is a record of learning."- "Memoirists operation on a continuum between recollection and dramatization."- "But originality and profundity are not identical. Profound ideas bear repeating, or rediscovery, and many original ideas do not."- "Self-doubt, fatal in so many enterprises, fortifies the essay."- "Assume that all potential subjects don't understand what they might be getting into, and tell them what you know about the possible consequences, especially the unpleasant ones."- "One of the most helpful things an editor can say to a writer is, 'Make this two sentences.'"- "Write the way you talk on your best day. Write the way you would like to talk."- "Whatever art any book achieves may or may not be rewarded in the marketplace, but art isn't generally achieved with the market in mind."- "... there are at least two kinds or rewriting. The first is trying to fix what you've already written... the second [better] kind [is]... figuring out the essential thing you're trying to do and looking for better ways to tell your story."- "Don't try to tell the reader how to feel."- "It has taken on average, about three years for [Kidder] to research and write a [nonfiction] book."- "When the proof pages come, we read the book aloud to each other, pausing now and then to imagine bad reviews..."- "That was when I began to learn a skill which for me needs constant relearning, how to fall out of love with my own words."- "Everyone can sense when someone is looking for the good within them, and it opens people to questioning in a way that reveals the good and everything else as well."- "Editors, in any medium, should avoid rewriting."- "Most problems in writing are structural, even on the scale of the page. Something isn't flowing properly. The logic or the dramatic logic is off."There are also a number of technical (style & grammar tips) but the gist of the material (minus the narrative) is what I have summarized above.

I really enjoyed this book. I had no expectation when I bought it, and I am glad I did not. It is easy and approachable. The authors present themselves in a very personable way, and offer practical advice for those interested in writing nonfiction. It is not a "technical" book at all; they offer their advice in a memoir-like format. I particularly appreciated the issues they raised in the third chapter, "Memoirs." I also enjoyed how they give the reader a peek into the life of a writer, not that they were making the point that theirs was a typical writing/editing life, but they do present what seems to me to be a realistic portrait of a writer/editor.There are no accounts of dramatic writing projects, or of a glamorous life, or of jet setting all afforded by instant success. On the contrary, I think it reads more like a story of perseverance and hard work and patience.It was a good read and I will definitely consider their advice in my writing.

Plenty of information told from the perspective of the authors. This is a course reader I didn’t think I’d enjoy half as much as I do. Important for writers to read and learn from, as the authors speak a lot of sense.

This is a relationship book: between writer and editor. It has changed how I work with my editor. A very good read!

A writer and their editor in written conversation makes this a cut above another one of those books that helps the writing process. They each write so well its frustrating, educational and inspiring. The authors manage to capture the editor-writer relationship and in doing so demonstrate how to get the best out of the printed page. And they make it look so easy.

Enjoyable but also useful. The writers have a wonderful way of giving you tips without doing so directly; they are all part of the narrative.