Write Your Tale Off!

. .The published books of Robert Brown Butler, an architect for fifty years, span a diversity of titles including The Ecological House,Architecture Laid Bare, The Disaster Handbook (a homeowner's guide to disaster preparedness), and five textbooks on architectural engineering for McGraw-Hill. In his latest opus, Write Your Tale Off, this author aims his architectural pen at writing —proclaiming that the building blocks of fine writing compare to those of fine buildings.Butler explains: “To analogize with a chair: I know what a chair is, but I want to know how to make one the instant I need it. Then I can satisfy my need quickly and completely on my own. As with a chair: You need to know its anatomy —its pieces, its lumber, its screws and nails; and you need to know how each part relates to the other parts, and how to fit them all together, and how to make it look nice and feel comfortable.” As such, in a compact 204 pages Butler has created a literary tool box, containing some fifty literary devices, that describes not only what each device is, but how to create it whenever you want. Here is a sampling of some of the literary devices this book defines and dissects: Say more with simpler writing (p. 26); Dramatize, not describe, your subject (p. 28); Use expressive verbs (p. 35); Add meaning with sentence fragments (p. 62); Define a physical or abstract subject (p. 76); Convince by reasoning with logic (p. 92); Differentiate between fact and opinion (p. 108); Intensify meaning with similes, metaphors, and irony (p. 136); Amuse with satire, sarcasm, and parody (p. 157); and Write lively dialogue (p. 178).Each of the book’s fifty lessons begins with a quoted passage that richly illustrates the use of each device by such literary giants as John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, O. Henry, Emily Bronte, Edgar Allen Poe, Ring Lardner, Herman Melville, Charles Dickens, William Safire, and Albert Einstein. To this reviewer's complete surprise, Einstein is revealed by his quoted excerpt to be a facile writer whose General Theory of Relativity can be easily understood by the average reader (Including this one, whose background in the sciences extended no further than college freshman zoology at a leading football factory in East Alabama).I particularly liked Butler's treatment of verb density —the ratio of verbs to the total number of words in a sentence— as a major indicator of fine writing. Butler says that fine writing generally has a ratio of about one verb per six words; and he suggests that an excellent way to increase this density is by using verbals: verbs used as nouns (gerunds), as adjectives and adverbs (participles), and as auxiliary verbs (infinitives). For example he says, “Consider this quiescent sentence: Bill gave Ann her money. By adding a flurry of gerunds, participles, and infinitives you can liven this to Bill, admonished and blushing, winced and gave Ann, pretending to be mollified, the money she believed was hers.” Or, he says, you can use such simile constructs as “He jumped as if stuck by a pin.” He also tacks on such familiar favorites as Shakespeare’s use of infinitives in “To be or not to be, that is the question” [whose verb density, by the way, is a superb 1 to 3.3].From my own experience as a journalist and freelance magazine writer, I found that one of Butler's most useful recommendations is that writers should prepare not one, but two, outlines for what they will write —and know these outlines will constantly change as one’s writing unfolds. The first outline, Butler says, is conceptual and helps arrange your thoughts, while the second is compositional and helps arrange your words —and mixing the two is like trying to tune your car and drive it at the same time (p. 121).Whatever a writer's aspirations —getting a book published, writing better professional reports, improving one's e-mails, penning more effective blogs, indeed any verbal communication— this book is an indispensable guide. Not to mention the sheer fun in getting exposed again to Twain, Poe, Lardner, and Safire and being able to pick up Einstein's General Theory without intimidation.

Ever wanted to write your own book? Then you will want to read this book on how to! There are many 'wanna be' writers out there, some have even printed their books and wondered why they haven't sold! If you want to build a chair, you need to learn its anatomy before you begin building. The same goes for writing a good book. The author actually describes is as not learning how to write but how to "design fine writing the way architects design fine buildings..."You will find 50 lessons in this book, all easily sourced from the index at the beginning. Throughout the book you will also discover 40 pop quizzes laying out how certain words should be used. Mostly amusing to read they are also pertinent to writers and editors etc.This is unlikely a book you will pick up and read all in one sitting. The author has put a LOT of information in one place so it can be a little heavy going at times. You will need to know some grammar beforehand or at least be willing to look up some if you don't already have that information stored inside your head. Despite this though, the book is NOT boring. Robert Butler illustrates his points/lessons with passages from very well known authors. If you are not a big fan of one writer, still learn that lesson, turn over the page and maybe your favorite author will be up next.I absolutely love the advice below given on Page 53, Lesson 12 entitled "Draw the Reader in by Leaving Information Out":"A good way to design such writing is write the whole thing out - then cross out half. Then reinsert the removed parts a trickle at a time. Leave the reader dangling until the denouement."SO if you are a writer that wants to raise the bar on your quality grab a copy of this book, read it and then keep a copy beside you as you write. Book provided in exchange for an honest review. Thanks, Liz