Claire Gillman

Okay, so, once you've read a half dozen of these books about writing, it is hard to find one that says anything new unless it contradicts all the others. This is no exception. Outside of a better title than most, it is really just more of the same - standard advice to writers. There is one feature of this one that does help it rise above the standard, though. The author apparently recognizes that her book may be read in countries other than the one in which it was written and published, so includes regular references to the US when there is a particular difference in standard practice. This can make the book useful for those of us who chanced to be born on the western side of the Atlantic, and might find ourselves puzzled when she notes that single quotations (') are preferred for dialogue - so she includes the preference for double quotation marks in the US ("), thereby multiplying the potential market for her book by large multipliers. Still, it really doesn't offer anything new to the non-novice writer, though I will acknowledge that it is hardly her fault that I did not pick up her book until I had been writing and reading writing books for a long time. So I'll give it the rating it would no doubt have earned had it chanced to be the first of its kind in my bookshelves.… (mais)