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free guidance notes on writing skills and English Language, sample pages, How-to guides, and study resources

free guidance notes on writing skills and English Language, sample pages, How-to guides, and study resources

Synonyms – how to understand them

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Synonyms – definition

synonyms In a very general sense, synonyms are different words which have the same meaning.

Examples
Word Synonym
kingly royal
pavement sidewalk
youth youngster
strong powerful
Use

redbtn Strictly speaking, such words are rarely [if ever] quite identical to each other.

redbtn There are bound to be semantic, stylistic, regional, or other differences between them.

redbtn It is often said that if two words do have exactly the same meaning, one of them is likely to disappear.

redbtn Moreover, two words might be synonymous in one statement, and different in another.

redbtn NB! Synonyms offer us variety in our expression.

redbtn Synonyms are usually referred to by linguists as ‘near synonyms’, because they argue that no two words mean exactly the same. If they did, one would probably disappear from use.

redbtn English is a language which has ‘borrowed’ from many varied sources during the course of its history. This has created a wide and heterogeneous lexicon. For example, terms which were originally French currently coexist with their Anglo-saxon equivalents:

French Anglo-Saxon
petite small
tour trip
chauffeur driver
aperitif drink
promenade front (as in sea-front)
escritoire desk

redbtn The French term usually carries a prestige value over that of the English equivalent, which is often seen as basic and even crass. This is because of the history of French dominance over the English as a result of the Norman Conquest.

redbtn During the period of French rule after 1066, a state of diglossia existed throughout the south of England. Diglossia means that two languages are used by one society, but applied to two discrete functions. French was used for matters of church and state, whereas English was used by the common people for personal and family discourse.

redbtn The legacy of this diglossia is that we have a multitude of synonyms or near-synonyms at our disposal.

redbtn However, it is usually preferable to state the same idea in a variety of styles, rather than to repeat one definitive term for one specific phenomenon.

redbtn In Shakespeare’s King Lear, the king confesses to being a ‘foolish fond old man’. The use of two near synonyms has a poetic and dramatic effect, as one adjective has the effect of intensifying the other.

Self-assessment quiz follows >>>

© Roy Johnson 2004

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Syntax – how to understand it

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Syntax – definition

syntax Syntax is the grammatical arrangement of words in a sentence.

redbtn It concerns both word order and agreement in the relationship between words.

redbtn Syntax is primarily concerned with structure of sentences.

Examples

redbtn The following statements follow normal English word order:

The cat sat on the mat.
My old brown leather suitcase.

redbtn The following statements do not follow normal English word order:

The cat on the mat sat.
My brown leather old suitcase.

Use

redbtn Word order is very important in English, because the language is no longer inflected. That is, individual words do not have endings to show which parts of speech they represent.

redbtn Changes to conventional synatx are often used to create dramatic, poetic, or comic effect.

redbtn For instance, poets and song lyricists often change syntactic order to create rhythmic effects:

“I’ll sing to him, each spring to him
And long for the day when I’ll cling to him,
Bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I.”

[RICHARD ROGERS]

redbtn NB! “To boldly go …” is STAR TREK’s famous syntactic inversion [and split infinitive].

redbtn A normal sentence in English usually contains at least three elements: subject, verb, and object.

Subject Verb Object
The cat eats the goldfish
John likes football
Mary chose the wallpaper

redbtn Every language has rules of syntax, and to the linguist the essential rules are descriptive. They are the rules which underpin the life of the language and which are extremely slow to change.

redbtn These are not to be confused with the presecriptive ‘rules’ of traditional grammar [For instance, ‘Never end a sentence with a preposition’].

redbtn An example of a descriptive rule of English syntax is that in the imperative in English, the verb takes the initial position in the sentence, usually directly before the noun which is the object.

Put those books on the table.
Take the lid off after half an hour.
Remove all packaging before heating the soup.
Isolate the switch in case of fault.

redbtn It is important to make a distinction between grammar and syntax, and to realise that syntax is a component of grammar.

redbtn The term ‘grammar’ refers to the whole structure of the language including the naming of its parts, its rules of tense, and its sound system. It is a comprehensive term.

redbtn Syntax only refers to the relationship between the grammatical components of language in use. In other words it is the nature, quality or type of relationship between terms in any given statement which is the province of syntax.

redbtn The construction of the passive voice is a syntactic issue, as it involves word order. The following statement is in the passive voice:

A woman was run over in central London today by a vehicle travelling at high speed.

redbtn If we transfer this to the active voice, we have:

A vehicle travelling at high speed ran over a woman in central London today.

redbtn The semantic content is similar in the two statements, but the emphasis is changed according to whether it is expressed as active or passive.

redbtn The difference between the two versions is dependent on the positioning of the subject and the object in the sentence. In the passive version, the object takes the initial position. This is a syntactic principle.

Self-assessment quiz follows >>>

© Roy Johnson 2004

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Taking notes for essays

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sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. In preparation for writing an essay, you should be taking notes from a number of different sources: course materials, set texts, secondary reading, or tutorials and lectures. You might gather information from radio or television broadcasts, or from experiments and research projects. The notes could also include your own ideas, generated as part of the essay planning process.

2. The notes you gather in preparation for writing the essay will normally provide the detailed evidence to back up your arguments. They might also include such things as the quotations and page references you plan to use in your essay. Your ultimate objective in planning will be to produce a one or two page outline of the topics you intend to cover.

3. Be prepared for the fact that you might take many more notes than you will ever use. This is perfectly normal. At the note-taking stage you might not be sure exactly what evidence you will need. In addition, the information-gathering stage should also be one of digesting and refining your ideas.

4. Don’t feel disappointed if you only use a quarter or even a tenth of your materials. The proportion you finally use might vary from one subject to another, as well as depending on your own particular writing strategy. Just because some material is not used, don’t imagine that your efforts have been wasted.

5. When taking notes from any source, keep in mind that you are attempting to make a compressed and accurate record of information, other people’s opinions, and possibly your own observations on the subject in question.

6. Your objective whilst taking the notes is to distinguish the more important from the less important points being made. Record the main issues, not the details. You might write down a few words of the original if you think they may be used in a quotation. Keep these extracts as short as possible unless you will be discussing a longer passage in some detail.

7. Don’t try to write down every word of a lecture – or copy out long extracts from books. One of the important features of note-taking is that you are making a digest of the originals, and translating the information into your own words.

8. Some students take so many notes that they don’t know which to use when it’s time to write the essay. They feel that they are drowning in a sea of information.

9. This problem is usually caused by two common weaknesses in note-taking technique:

  • transcribing too much of the original
  • being unselective in the choice of topics

10. There are two possible solutions to this problem:

  • Select only those few words of the source material which will be of use. Avoid being descriptive. Think more, and write less. Be rigorously selective.
  • Keep the essay question or topic more clearly in mind. Take notes only on those issues which are directly relevant to the subject in question.

11. Even though the notes you take are only for your own use, they will be more effective if they are recorded clearly and neatly. Good layout of the notes will help you to recall and assess the material more readily. If in doubt use the following general guidelines.

Taking Notes – GUIDELINES

  1. Before you even start, make a note of your source(s). If this is a book, an article, or a journal, write the following information at the head of your notes: Author, title, publisher, publication date, edition of book.
     
  2. Use loose-leaf A4 paper. This is now the international standard for almost all educational printed matter. Don’t use small notepads. You will find it easier to keep track of your notes if they fit easily alongside your other study materials.
     
  3. Write clearly and leave a space between each note. Don’t try to cram as much as possible onto one page. Keeping the items separate will make them easier to recall. The act of laying out information in this way will cause you to assess the importance of each detail.
     
  4. Use some system of tabulation (as I am doing in these notes). This will help to keep the items separate from each other. Even if the progression of numbers doesn’t mean a great deal, it will help you to keep the items distinct.
     
  5. Don’t attempt to write continuous prose. Notes should be abbreviated and compressed. Full grammatical sentences are not necessary. Use abbreviations, initials, and shortened forms of commonly used terms.
     
  6. Don’t string the points together continuously, one after the other on the page. You will find it very difficult to untangle these items from each other after some time has passed.
     
  7. Devise a logical and a memorable layout. Use lettering, numbering, and indentation for sections and for sub-sections. Use headings and sub-headings. Good layout will help you to absorb and recall information. Some people use coloured inks and highlighters to assist this process of identification.
     
  8. Use a new page for each set of notes. This will help you to store and identify them later. Keep topics separate, and have them clearly titled and labelled to facilitate easy recall.
     
  9. Write on one side of the page only. Number these pages. Leave the blank sides free for possible future additions, and for any details which may be needed later.

Sample notes

What follows is an example of notes taken whilst listening to an Open University radio broadcast – a half hour lecture by the philosopher and cultural historian, Isaiah Berlin. It was entitled Tolstoy’s Views on Art and Morality, which was part of the third level course in literary studies ‘A 312 – The Nineteenth Century Novel and its Legacy.

Isaiah Berlin – ‘Tolstoy on Art and Morality’ 03 Sep 1989

1. T’s views on A extreme – but he asks important questns which disturb society

2. 1840s Univ of Kazan debate on purpose of A
T believes there should be simple answers to probs of life

3. Met simple & spontaneous people & soldiers in Caucasus
Crimean Sketches admired by Turgenev & Muscovites but T didn’t fit in milieu

4. Westernizers Vs Slavophiles – T agreed with Ws – but rejects science (Ss romantic conservatives)

5. 2 views of A in mid 19C – A for art’s sake/ A for society’s sake

6. Pierre (W&P) and Levin (AK) as egs of ‘searchers for truth’

7. Natural life (even drunken violence) better than intellectual

8. T’s contradiction – to be artist or moralist

9. T’s 4 criteria for work of art

  • know what you want to say – lucidly and clearly
  • subject matter must be of essential interest
  • artist must live or imagine concretely his material
  • A must know the moral centre of situation

10. T crit of other writers

Shkspre and Goethe – too complex
St Julien (Flaubert) inauthentic
Turgenev and Chekhov guilty of triviality

11. What is Art? Emotion recollected and transmitted to others
[Wordsworth] Not self-expression – Only good should be transmitted

12. But his own tastes were for high art – Chopin, Beethoven, & Mozart
T Argues he himself corrupted

13. Tried to distinguish between his own art and moral tracts

14. ‘Artist cannot help burning like a flame’

15. Couldn’t reconcile contradictions in his own beliefs
Died still raging against self and society

© Roy Johnson 2003

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Tenses – how to understand them

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free pages from our English Language software program

Tenses – definition

tenses The term tenses refers to the temporal aspect of verbs in use.

redbtn There are many tenses in English to express past, present, and future.

Examples

PRESENT tense

The child brings joy into their lives.
Paris is the capital of France.
Paul is looking for the cat.

PAST tense

It was a wonderful day for all of us.
Judith had left the key on the table.
Fred had been about to leave when the telephone rang

FUTURE tense

The wedding will be a splendid affair.
I am going to stop smoking.
Stephen goes to college next week.

Use

redbtn All languages have tenses. It is interesting that English is the only modern European language which has no future tense as a designated term.

redbtn The future tense in English is expressed by using other tenses or by the semantic context.

redbtn In the example ‘Stephen goes to college next week’ the term ‘Stephen goes’ is present tense. It is the context in this case – created by the phrase ‘next week’ – which tells us that we are being informed about the future.

redbtn NB! Hold on to your hat! This topic can become quite complex.

redbtn There are many tenses in the English Language. They are all varieties of past, present, and future.

redbtn The following examples have all been placed in a context so that the complexity and the range of English tenses can be appreciated.

redbtn The names for tenses vary from one grammar text book to the next. Don’t worry about the exact name. It is more important to

  • assess whether the statement is in past, present, or future
  • look for any auxiliary verbs (‘to have’ and ‘to be’) used to construct the tense

redbtn Varieties of the past tense

I ran (so that I could be here at this moment)
I have run (all the way here)
I was running (when I fell over a few minutes ago)
I had run (so that I could arrive on time yesterday)
I have been running (and that’s why I’m out of breath now)
I had been running (and that’s why I fell over yesterday)
I used to run (but I have walked for some time now)

redbtn Varieties of the present tense

I run (to work every morining)
I am running (and that’s why I’m out of breath)
I have been running (for fifteen minutes, and I’m still running)

redbtn Varieties of the future tense

I shall run (so that I’ll arrive on time)
I will run (so don’t try to stop me)
I shall be running (to work for the foreeeable future to keep fit)
I shall have run (twelve miles by tomorrow morning)
I shall have been running (to work each morning for two weeks by next Friday)
I run (tomorrow because that’s the day of the race)

redbtn In some instances of these future varieties ‘shall’ and ‘will’ are auxiliaries deriving from the Old English ‘to wish’ or ‘to want’.

redbtn In order to assess whether an action or a state of existence is expressed in the past, present or future tense, it is important to have an idea of a fixed point in time from which the action or state is valued.

redbtn For example ‘I shall have been running’ implies a point in the future from which the past of that time is being viewed.

redbtn “I run into the house and there’s a masked gunman waiting to rob me!” looks like the simple present, but in fact it refers to an event in the past. Technicallly this is known as the vivid present and is mainly used in speech to add a sense of drama to an account of an exciting event.

Self-assessment quiz follows >>>

© Roy Johnson 2004

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Text – how to understand it

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Text – definition

text Text literally means ‘a piece of writing’.

redbtn It has now acquired the meaning ‘the object being studied’.

Examples

Charles Dickens’ novel Bleak House is a text.
A letter from the Gas Board is a text.
The caption to a picture is a text.
A painting by Picasso can be a text.

Use

redbtn The term is most used in literary studies, where it was originally used as a synonym for ‘book’.

redbtn But it could just as easily be a poem, a letter, or a diary.

redbtn It is now in general use in other branches of the humanities such as cultural studies and film studies – where its meaning becomes ‘the thing being studied’.

redbtn So — in these other fields it could also be a video film, an advertisement, a painting, or a music score.

redbtn It is used so as to concentrate attention on the object being studied, rather than its author.

redbtn The term ‘text’ is most likely to mean a piece of writing which is the subject of study.

redbtn It is important to remember those elements which are the substance of textual analysis.

redbtn These are all relevant to analysing a text or piece of writing.

audience form function genre
layout subject structure style
syntax tone vocabulary

redbtn The term ‘text’ is used in other areas of enquiry to mean ‘the item being studied’.

redbtn This contemporary usage reflects a concentration on the object of study, rather than on its author.

redbtn This is another point at which the study of language blends into literary studies or ‘critical theory’.

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© Roy Johnson 2004

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Text Production

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the production, transmission, and reception of a text

Text production offers a series of discussion points from a presentation on literary studies. The points focus on the physical production of a text as it progress from author, via publisher, to reader. These are in fact lecture notes from a post-graduate foundation course on the very nature of literary studies. Course participants are invited to reflect on the entire process of literature as a cultural phenomenon – from its origins in the mind of the author, then through the various physical stages of reproduction until it is consumed by the reader.

By taking a historical, philosophical, and materialist view on the nature of what we call ‘literature’, we are forced to recognise the changing nature of the medium of literature itself, as well as notions of ‘authorship’, the creative process, and the physical consumption of language.

Medium

  • carved into wood or stone
  • handwriting on leather, parchment, paper
  • dictation to stenographer, amanuensis
  • written with fountain pen
  • typewriter [from late 19th C]
  • dictaphone [from early 1900s]
  • word-processor [from 1980]
  • World Wide Web [from 1990]

Author

  • legibility of handwriting
  • spelling irregularities
  • punctuation [subjective]
  • revisions to draft
  • multiple versions of a text

Compositor

  • mis-readings of the text
  • ‘regularisation’ of author’s spelling or punctuation
    * in line with ‘house style’
    * on compositor’s whim
  • commercial requirements of space

Printer

  • choice of typeface
  • choice of font size
  • page layout
  • page size
  • paper quality
  • binding

Editor

  • choice of copy text
  • editorial policy on corrections, spelling, substantives and accidentals

Publisher

  • paper and binding quality
  • print run (number of copies)
  • print or digital text
  • selling price
  • number of editions
  • advertising and promotion

Context

  • genre (type) of publication
  • its relation to others of its type
  • social status of such publications

Audience

  • readership and its expectations
  • reader’s ‘purpose’

Reception

  • Critical comment on the text
  • ‘reputation’ of text
  • context in which it is read

© Roy Johnson 2005

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Textual Bibliography – selected reading

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recommended fundamental studies in textual scholarship

This is a short but highly selective list of studies in textual bibliography. That is, the classic theories and approaches related to the establishment of authoritative texts. These theories take into account multiple versions and editions of a single work; the ‘intentions’ of the author; printed variants in the text; and the issues arising from authorial revisions.

Textual BibliographyJaques Barzun, On Writing, Editing and Publishing, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.

George Bornstein (ed), Representing Modernist Texts: Editing as Interpretation, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1991.

Fredson Bowers, Textual and Literary Criticism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959.

Fredson Bowers, Bibliography and Textual Criticism, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964.

Fredson Bowers, Essays in Bibliography, Text, and Editing, Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1975.

Peter Davison, The Book Encompased: Studies in Twentieth Century Bibliography, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Philip Gaskell, From Writer to Reader: Studies in Editorial Method, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978.

Ronald Gottesman and Scott Bennett, Art and Error: Modern textual editing, London: Methuen, 1970.

D.C. Greetham, Textual Scholarship: An Introduction, New York: Garland, 1994.

John Lennard, But I Digress: The Exploitation of Parentheses in English Printed Verse, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.

G. Thomas Tanselle, A Rationale of Textual Criticism, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989.

G. Thomas Tanselle, Textual Criticism since Greg: A Chronicle, Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987.

[NB! Greetham’s excellent book Textual Scholarship contains a 106 page bibliography covering all aspects of the subject.]

© Roy Johnson 2009

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The Art and Science of Screenwriting

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creative writing guide for the cinema and television

This is a practical handbook on screenwriting, an explanation of what a screenplay is, a guide to getting your own ideas into the correct format, and an account of all the stages that follow the production of a first draft. Philip Parker starts off by explaining the key concepts of any dramatic narrative and showing their relationship to each other in what he calls a ‘creative matrix’. These are story, theme, form, plot, genre, and style. He explains how each of these is relevant, then takes you through what he calls ‘the tools of the trade’ – the original Proposal, the Outline, the Treatment, the Step Outline, and the Screenplay Layout.

The Art and Science of ScreenwritingThese are all progressively longer documents which specify exactly what the film is about and what happens in it. He shows you how to produce these documents, and even how to lay out their contents on the page. He also shows how to develop screen ideas out of novels and stories, contemporary events, historical happenings, even newspaper stories or your own life or dreams. There is also an explanation of the differences in writing for television and the cinema.

The most basic elements are how to establish credible characters and how to best arrange the sequence of events in a multi-strand narrative. To demonstrate this in practice, he offers examples and analyses of film scripts for both television and cinema, showing how scenes are paced and edited, and how narratives are controlled.

He also identifies what he calls the ‘ten basic stories’ and ‘eight basic themes’. I’m not sure that all narratives can be so reduced, but it leads to a lot of useful discussion of genres and stereotypes – and how to recognise them. He also goes on to show the different styles in which films can be shot appropriate to their genre.

He finishes with two important chapters. First, having written the initial draft of your screenplay, how to go about re-writing it to produce a sharper version. Second, how to get your work accepted, deal with agents, cope with rejections, and strike deals which lead to your getting paid.

It’s suitable for anyone who has an interest in screenwriting – from would-be first time writers, to experienced professionals such as directors, producers, and media teachers.

What he emphasises is that producing for the screen is an industry in which the screenwriter is only one part. It might be an important part, but you have to be prepared to co-operate with other people. There are useful suggestions for further reading, but one thing that’s missing is a glossary of technical jargon. That’s one for the next edition.

I still don’t know why screen scripts present their instructions in ugly continuous capitals, but he shows you exactly how to do it. If you want to get on in this business, you have to conform to its rules.

© Roy Johnson 2000

The Art and Science of Screenwriting   Buy the book at Amazon UK

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Philip Parker, The Art and Science of Screenwriting, Exeter: Intellect, 2nd edn, 1999, pp.219, ISBN: 1841500003

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The First Five Pages

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a writer’s guide to staying out of the slush pile

Noah Lukeman is a New York literary agent with a number of top-ranking authors as his clients. He has also written a number of books on the craft of writing (see The Art of Punctuation for instance) so he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to the literary marketplace – in which it must be said so many people wish to make their mark. Publishers and literary agents receive hundreds and hundreds of manuscripts each month – almost all of which are rejected. The First Five Pages is his advice for staying out of the slush pile.

The First Five PagesIt’s the job of these publishing professionals to be discriminating, and it’s the job of the writer to produce a manuscript that stands out among the competition. Those outstanding qualities, Lukeman argues, have to be apparent from the first five pages – otherwise no agent or publisher will bother reading further. In fact he claims – and I believe him – that five sentences is enough. His advice when it comes is quite bracing. First of all he dismisses the supremacy of plot, and lets you in to a secret from the professional’s office:

Agents and editors often ignore synopses and plot outlines; instead, we skip right to the actual manuscript. If the writing is good, then we’ll go back and consider the synopsis

The other thing which creates an immediate impression on agents and publishers is the physical presentation of text. He takes a really strict line here.You should use clean, new A4 paper, and the text should be printed at high quality, double spaced with one inch margins and indented dialogue and paragraph first lines. The slightest falling off in these standards gives the reader every reason to chuck your work into the reject bin.

Next comes the surgical removal of excessive adjectives and adverbs – the most common mistake of would-be writers. This is followed by advice on the sound of language, and how to avoid unwanted alliteration, assonance, and verbal echoes. The same is true for any comparisons or metaphors you use. They should be fresh, original, and to the point – otherwise, leave them out.

On literary style his advice is to avoid mannerism and extremes, and he nails down two excellent examples of the ‘academic’ and ‘experimental’ style of writing.

There’s a section on dialogue and eradicating all that ‘he said … she retorted’ sort of thing. He warns specifically against the easy trap of using dialogue to fill in the back story. That is, having characters explicate matters they would both already know (for the benefit of the reader). The rule – as ever – is show, don’t tell.

The same sort of rigour is well-advised over point of view and narrative mode. Many amateur writers use the first person mode thinking it will allow them the chance to show off, but all they end up doing is littering their story with too much biographical dross, and failing to create a consistent and credible or interesting narrator.

Next comes the creation of character. This is a difficult topic on which to generalise. Some great novels have memorable characters about whose appearance we know very little (Kafka’s Joseph K for instance) and others are memorable merely for what they do – such as Catherine Earnshaw, who even dies half way through Wuthering Heights.

The later chapters deal with some of the more subtle points of being creative – knowing what to leave out, striking the right tone, how to stay focused on the main event, and how to deal with setting and pace.

Many aspiring writers will complain that their favourite authors ignore these guidelines – and Lukeman admits that great writers break all the rules. But what he’s offering here is a guide to common mistakes which should be avoided. As he says, would-be writers from California to England to Turkey to Japan … do exactly the same things wrong

To get into print in the first instance you have to obey the literary norms of the day. And that’s what this book The First Five Pages is doing in its own modest way. Noah Lukeman just wants to show you how to stand out from the also-rans in the slush pile, as something worthy of notice.

The First Five Pages   Buy the book at Amazon UK

The First Five Pages   Buy the book at Amazon US

© Roy Johnson 2010

Noah Lukeman, The First Five Pages, Oxford: Oxford University Press, revised edition, 2010, pp.191, ISBN: 0199575282

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The Forest for the Trees

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advice to writers – from an experienced editor

All authors, editors and publishers should read this book. Even those who think they know all about writing and the publishing process will find fresh ideas and perceptive insights. Betsy Lerner has a wealth of experience, from her youthful beginnings at Simon & Schuster to becoming executive editor at Doubleday and now as a literary agent. She writes with style, empathy, wit, realism, and above all humanity. In The Forest for the Trees she identifies five ‘writer types’, all of them familiar.

The Forest for the TreesThe Ambivalent Writer is one who can’t commit to a one idea for a story from the many possibles and who does not realise that writing is 90 per cent sheer sticking power. The Natural Writer is the one for whom writing appears to come easily. Or is that the myth of not realising that hard writing makes easy reading? Lerner’s definition of the ‘natural’ is one who is always writing. She cites Thurber who never quite knew when he was or wasn’t at it, ‘Sometimes my wife comes up to me at a party and says, “Dammit, Thurber, stop writing.”‘ For ‘natural’, maybe one should read ‘persistent’.

The Wicked Child relies on ‘kiss-and-tell’: someone who exposes family relationships, friends, acquaintances (or even, like Philip Roth, a whole tribe) in a more or less disguised fashion. personal relationships. The Self-promoter will do anything for fame – there are many such writers today, but it is a shock to realise that Walt Whitman shamelessly trumpeted himself from the roof-tops and sucked up to celebrity writers of the day. Emily Dickinson on the other hand died with 2000 poems unpublished .

The Neurotic makes a great fuss about the process itself – writing has to be done with an HB pencil, or on lined paper of exactly the right width. Few of these quirks are as eccentric as Dame Edith Sitwell who needed to start the day’s work by lying in an open coffin, but every reader will recognise such stalling techniques.

The second half of the book deals with the publishing process – everything from finding an agent to the book jacket and sales conference. Authors should be aware of what editors are looking for and what they can realistically expect from a publishing house. It would seem that a wad of rejection letters followed eventually by a book without a launch party and no reviews is completely the norm. And if authors turn up to read their books in local bookshops only to find they haven’t got any copies to sell, that’s par for the course too.

Naturally every author is looking for validation, but ten per cent of all titles earn ninety per cent of all revenues. Publishers are clearly going to concentrate on those at the top of their lists. Yet the truth seems to be that even the publishers don’t know which books are going to be in that top ten per cent. If they did, they probably wouldn’t print any of the others at all.

Lerner concludes: ‘Most of the disappointment that writers experience in having a book published can be traced back to their initial expectations – what most writers don’t understand … is that landing a contract and being published do not guarantee the fulfillment of all their hopes and dreams.’

Why do we do it?

© Jane Dorner 2004

The Forest for the Trees   Buy the book at Amazon UK

The Forest for the Trees   Buy the book at Amazon US

Betsy Learner, The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers, New York: Riverhead Books/Penguin Putnam, revised and updated edition 2010, pp.304, ISBN: 159448483X

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