Verlyn Klinkenborg's "Several Short Sentences About Writing" - A Guide to Crafting Your Best Work

J: The author first highlights the disservice a school education does to the skills of writing, which was a little repetitive. The text really takes off after that, explaining how short sentences are important, and how they are the building blocks for longer ones. It’s all about sentences. Sentences are the building blocks, and writers hone the sentences, especially the short ones. He also writes about other things, how an outline is a ‘catwalk’, that you can use outlines at first, but shouldn’t rely too much on them. The entire book is like the medicine you hate that taste of, but have to take it. It’s excellent medicine, though.

Australia on Oct 06, 2022

Vanessa Cobb: Rapidly, this has become one of my favourite books about writing. It’s never far from my desk. If ever words could capture the infinite possibility of a sentence, these do.

United Kingdom on Aug 14, 2022

Oliver: One of the reasons I'm skeptical of a lot of writing advice books is for how they'll clutter my head with a lot of rules - each of which I'll need to spend time assessing to see if a) they make sense to me, b) they are a rule or a stylistic preference marketed as a rule, c) are important enough for me to put it in my shortlist of editing tools I always use or are more of a general maxim I'll just try to keep in mind.

The reason this book really vibes with me, and why I'm comfy recommending it, is I found it does the opposite. It decluttered my mind and helped me see core, highly valuable writing concepts clearly for the first time in a long time.

Canada on Mar 20, 2022

Naman: No matter what your profession is, you should buy this book! It states the facts about consciousness —not explicitly "consciousness"— that I said for years, regarding learning!
This is not a "Grammar Rule Book" though. But everyone should have this book.

India on May 15, 2021

Kristin: Book Review:

When I
First started this journey,
I wasn’t sure what I was going to
Expect.

Yet, my expectations
Were exceeded.

But not from the start.
You see,
This book was an
Eye opener
For me.
But I was hesitant at first.

I have been so
Limited my entire writing
Life.
And I didn’t even know it.
The limitations I have felt
Through my
Writing
I believed were
Circumstantial.
The deadlines, the rubric, the rules….
Unfortunately as it turns out, I was limited
Because I did not know how to write.
Not even close.

But now,
I feel clean.
Klinkenborg takes what
We think we know,
Completely disregards it and finds its replacement-
The truth.

It was hard at first,
To be open to learning something completely new.
It was as if
He took everything that I had believed,
And threw it into a fire.
Each ember that sparked out of the scarlet blaze
Symbolized pieces of the old me
Screaming out to be kept alive.
But to be a new me,
I had to learn to let those embers die.

At times,
I felt like he was criticizing me personally,
And I got...

United States on Sep 25, 2017

Vicki: Short Review
The book was a unique journey.
It wasn’t complex, and it wasn’t out of the ordinary. Did it have to be?
Again, a book completely shuffles my expectations. There was something peculiar about the writing style, as if it was trying to prove that writing could be unique.
A lot of the wisdom were givens.
We all knew the answers, we just didn’t know the questions.

All books provide knowledge.
But few make you think about knowledge.
This book was one of the few to do it. It’s special, because it defies any imaginary boundaries set by the readers.
No chapters, no paragraphs, no format.
But it is organized.

Do not mistaken the wisdom as strawn about all over,
It is inconspicuously very organized.
Much like a school of fish, seemingly very clumsy,
But surprisingly flexible once put into action.

Throughout the book, the theme was always among the same guidelines.
That is to be contrary to what one would think,
And to be innovative on looking at subjects from different angles.
The wisdom was given raw, without need of long elaboration, \
Or detailed profiling. However, that is by no means calling it...

United States on Sep 25, 2017

Lyn Alexander: As I began reading this book, I found myself nodding my head, saying to myself, yes, yes, I do that; yes, I see that; yes, that is true; yes, I have always done that...
I enjoyed reading about these familiar turns of the writer’s brain. But after a few pages the message began to seem turgid. Repetitive. Slow. Dragging. Dull.
I have no doubt that Klinkenborg is a superb teacher of writing, but this book… in my opinion… does not drive a writer forward. It seems, on the other hand, to stop him in his tracks.
The essential message that I take from this book is that we must NOT write freely, we must examine each sentence as we put it to the page, and polish it, and make it perfect, and not worry about any other sentence until we are ready to proceed to the next sentence…
There. That is what I get from this book. And a lot about what the writer ought to be thinking while he is writing one sentence.
In three reading sessions I got to page 135 before wearily, finally, closing the covers. I don’t know what I may miss by not finishing the book. I don’t much care.
What I DO know is that I already know what Klinkenborg says I ought to know. Thank you

Canada on Oct 20, 2014