Introduction

100 ways to improve your writing - Gary Provost 2019


Introduction

This book will teach you how to write better love letters.

It will also teach you how to write better books, short stories, magazine articles, letters to the editor, business proposals, sermons, poems, novels, parole requests, church newsletters, songs, memos, essays, term papers, theses, graffiti, blog posts, advertisements, and shopping lists.

If your writing does not improve after you read this book, you have not failed. I have. It is the writer’s job, not the reader’s, to see that writing accomplishes whatever goal the writer has set for it.

One bit of advice I will give you in this book is “Make yourself likable.” Readers who like you are more inclined to trust you, to laugh at your jokes, cry over your anguish, sign the petition, buy the product, put the check in the mail, or do whatever else it is you are trying to get them to do through your writing.

I want you to like me so that you will follow my advice—and recommend my book to your friends. And that’s important for you to know because it means I am on your side. I’m not here to tell you that you’re writing wrong. I’m here to show you how to write right.

—Gary Provost

• • •

Gary Provost’s popular book for writers was published in 1985 and has never been out of print. While there have been additional printings, a revised version is due. The following updates address and easily incorporate the changes that have taken place in the past thirty-plus years.

When Gary wrote this, most writers used typewriters or, if they were lucky, word processors. Some still wrote with pen and paper and hired typists for the finished copies. Writers who were not technology hobbyists did not own desktop computers, laptops did not exist, and the only tablets available were the paper kind.

Prior to August 1991, the month the World Wide Web was launched, creating the Internet as we know it today, research meant trips to the library, a far more laborious and time-consuming method.

Gary did make a reference in Chapter Eight to the changing use of gender-specific pronouns, and did write with awareness of the issue.

These three issues involved the greatest area of updates in the book. Not all references to the use of paper and pen and other semi-anachronisms have been deleted. Some writers still use them. All ways of working are represented. The same holds true for reference and research work. While the Internet and online tools are invaluable, there are still some reference materials writers may prefer to keep on hand in hard copy.

Examples within the book, for the most part, are originals from Gary. As long as each point being made remains accurate, I saw no reason to change any example, including previously published work of others for which permissions had already been granted.

Gary wrote with a distinctive voice. His humor and personality shone through his writing, and for anyone who ever heard him speak, you can hear his voice in the words. Sometimes he used colloquialisms that may sound like questionable English. He did that with intention, and I left those alone. They are his voice, and I love them.

Gary wrote this book with the same generosity and humor that he brought to every writing workshop I ever attended. I have tried to approach this updated edition with the same spirit. He was a wonderful teacher, and the fact that this book continues to sell is a testament to that fact.

—Carol Dougherty, WRW student, teacher, current director