The Writing Wright: The Writing Wright series, #1

By Jim Stovall

-- Ernest Hemingway’s attitude toward punctuation.
-- Tom Clancy on the fact that he had never been in a submarine before writing The Hunt for Red October.
-- Gay Talese’s commitment to reporting.
-- Thomas Jefferson on the value of using fewer words.

These are just a few of the gems that you will find in this jewelry box of information, ideas, and instruction on writing and the writing life.

Jim Stovall taught writing for more than 40 years and is the author of the top-selling Writing for the Mass Media, as well as a number of textbooks, non-fiction books and novels.

He has put together this marvelous collection of wisdom from his own writings as well as drawing together quotations, anecdotes, and ideas from some of the greatest writers in the English language. Stovall has also included many of his own delightful illustrations.

All of this will keep you returning to this book again and again.

And there’s a bonus: The book includes the first chapter of Stovall’s mystery novel, Kill the Quarterback. Download this volume today, and then watch for volume 2.

• Language: English
• Publisher: First Inning Press
• Release date: Aug 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386594260

Jim Stovall

James Glen Stovall (Jim) is a retired professor of journalism who lives in East Tennessee. During his teaching career, he taught at the University of Alabama (1978-2003), Emory and Henry College (2003-2006) and the University of Tennessee (2006-2016). He is now working on a second career writing young adult fiction and mysteries. Jim is the author of the a selling writing textbook, Writing for the Mass Media, as well as other journalism texts such as Journalism: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How and Web Journalism. Other books include:  • Seeing Suffrage:The 1913 Washington Suffrage Parade, Its Pictures, and Its Effects on the American Political Landscape • Battlelines: Gettysburg: Civil War Sketch Artists and the First Draft of War In addition to writing, Jim likes to paint (watercolor), draw (pen and ink), play music (dulcimer and banjo), garden and piddle around in his woodworking shop. Jim grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, and that is his favorite setting for his novels.

Book preview

Introduction

When the Sumerians—Middle Easterners living around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers—developed the first system of what we would now call writing about three thousand years ago, they used clay tablets as their writing paper. These soft pieces of mud would then harden, creating a permanent record of what was written.

It wasn’t all that permanent, of course.

The mud dried too much, became brittle and eventually fell apart.

Fortunately, not every Sumerian tablet met that fate. A few were preserved, enough so that we have a good idea of some of the uses the Sumerians had for writing.

Those uses are the same as the ones we have today—doing everything from recording everyday, mundane events and information to producing stories and literature that people generations after they were produced could read.

The process and purpose of writing have remained constant from the beginning of the written word. The tools have changed and are continuing to evolve.

***

Writing—its process and purpose—is a fascinating topic.

As a teacher of journalistic writing, I spent about 40 years trying to convey to students not only the techniques of good writing but also the magic and creativity of the process. After all of that time, the fascination for me continues.

If I have any apology—that is, reason—for producing this book, it is that fascination. If there is any claim to coherence for this eclectic mix, it is that.

I hope the fascination will shine through in this series. This book attempts to present some thoughts, ideas, instruction, and information about writers and writing.

It is produced solely for the reader’s enlightenment and enjoyment, which I hope will be the same thing.

***

At the end of this book are some excerpts of novels that have I written. I hope that you will read and enjoy them. I hope they will lead you to buying the books and possibly even reviewing them.

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Download your FREE copy of

Kill the Quarterback

When a star quarterback is killed before his senior year, hard-boiled reporter Mitch Sawyer must battle personal and professional demons in order to track down a killer before he strikes again.

Mitch Sawyer likes a good murder. A good murder means his stories will probably land on the front page of the Nashville Daily Tribune. But this one is different. This one is Jimmy Chin Lee, brilliant quarterback at Vanderbilt University and possibly—probably—the next Heisman Trophy winner. But two weeks before the season is to begin, Lee is found dead in his west side apartment, victim of a gunshot wound.

No clues, one suspect—but the police can't find her. She finds Mitch.

After that, nothing goes right for anyone.

Download your free copy at

https://www.instafreebie.com/free/COmF4

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Dean Acheson: Clear thinking, good writing -

  and words relevant for our time

DeanAcheson.jpeg

For a long time we have gone along with some well-tested principles of conduct:

• that it was better to tell the truth than falsehoods;

• that a half-truth was no truth at all;

• that duties were older than and as fundamental as rights;

• that, as Justice Holmes put it, the mode by which the inevitable came to pass was effort;

• that to perpetuate a harm was always wrong, no matter how many joined in it, but to perpetuate it on a weaker person was particularly detestable ...

Our institutions are founded on the assumption that most people will follow these principles most of the time because they want to, and the institutions work pretty well when this assumption is true.

Dean Acheson, statesman and lawyer (1893-1971)

Acheson drew much criticism and praise for his view of the world and his actions as a diplomat, but his dedication to public service is unquestioned.

These words seem far more relevant for us today than they did 60 years ago when he wrote them.

Thanks to A Word A Day for finding this quotation.

Gay Talese, reporter

gaytalese4.jpg

For more than 40 years, there has been intense interest in the writing style exemplified by Gay Talese – and in Gay Talese (web site) himself.

But that emphasis, particularly in Talese himself, may have been misplaced. Talese is certainly a writer of utmost grace. He works at his profession with an intensity that is rare.

But what distinguishes him is not his writing but his reporting.

Talese has produced a number of important and interesting magazine articles and books, most famously Frank Sinatra has a cold (Esquire, April 1966), The Kingdom and the Power, Honor Thy Father, and Thy Neighbor’s Wife, among many others. In some of these, he has been a minor or major character.

Now he is about to publish a memoir, A Writer’s Life, which talks about his methods of reporting and writing. The book