The Elements of Active Prose

Anyone studying writing will have heard the advice to ‘show, don’t tell,’ but what does that really mean? And how do you actually do it? Many books lay out the broad strokes of writing fiction—characters, plot, pacing, dialogue and so on—but they rarely get into the word-by-word, sentence-by-sentence explanations of how to write good prose. This book rectifies this imbalance. It examines how many writers use effective, striking words and phrases when constructing sentences, and offers pithy tips for making your prose as exciting and engaging as possible. It also includes great tips on how to self-edit, along with excellent advice on working with editors, applying ‘rules’ and dealing with criticism.