Verlyn Klinkenborg

Counsels aspiring writers on how to move past conventional understandings about creativity, writer's block, and other literary challenges to develop a greater understanding of how thinking, noticing, and learning are integral parts of the writing process.

Several Short Sentences About Writing

Adam Scharf

Erwin Lemuel Oliva

Reading this book reminded me how to write better. Short does not mean bad. The format stays true to its title. They are brief. Breeze through this. But stop where examples of bad sentences are inspected. Makes you pay attention. I will reread this again. A keeper.

Shreya Punj

I read this as an audiobook and Verlyn’s voice is as seductive as his prose. The author’s insights into writing are simple and effective. I don’t want to come across as pompous when I say this, but I’ve always believed in the power of a well-constructed short sentence and this book reinstated my faith. The part I loved most was when Verlyn discusses the way a child reads. Each sentence provides information in a children’s book with just enough room for implication. And we could all revisit that style of writing to bring more clarity to our prose.

A New York Times editorial board member and esteemed writing instructor counsels aspiring writers on how to move past conventional understandings about creativity, writer's block and other literary challenges to develop a greater understanding of how thinking, noticing and learning are integral parts of the writing process. 20,000 first printing.

Several Short Sentences about Writing

Ron Bronson

This is a useful book. It's one of those that's reference more than OKAY I'VE LEARNED EVERYTHING I NEED TO KNOW AND NOW I CAN GO DO THIS. At least, that's how it is for me. I felt like it was a good lecture or classroom book of notes that I can use to remember about writing and the craft of writing. 

For someone like me who feels like he struggles between being an excellent writer and a terrible one (see also: insecurity) it's useful to have what amounts to a literary coach on your shoulder encouraging you throughout the process. Otherwise, it feels like this impossible thing that you have no business doing for this reason or that.

This book will join several others on my bookshelf earmarked for that purpose.

Luca Conti

Disappointing. The idea of single sentences is great at the beginning and boring after a while. Some ideas. Lots of empty repetition. I got lost after 40%. Not many take aways at the end of the day.

Kevin Wammer

Kyle Curry

Zach Grosser

Julien Sobczak

Brandon Walowitz

Jesse J. Anderson

Harsha G

Hellboy TCR

Kate Sigrist

Most of what you think you know about writing is useless. It’s the harmful debris of your education—a mixture of half-truths, myths, and false assumptions that prevents you from writing well. Drawing on years of experience as a writer and teacher of writing, Verlyn Klinkenborg offers an approach to writing that will change the way you work and think. There is no gospel, no orthodoxy, no dogma in this book. What you’ll find here isn’t the way to write. Instead, you’ll find a way to clear your mind of illusions about writing and discover how you write. Several Short Sentences About Writing is a book of first steps and experiments. They will revolutionize the way you think and perceive, and they will change forever the sense of your own authority as a writer. This is a book full of learning, but it’s also a book full of unlearning—a way to recover the vivid, rhythmic, poetic sense of language you once possessed. An indispensable and unique book that will give you a clear understanding of how to think about what you do when you write and how to improve the quality of your writing.

Several Short Sentences About Writing

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