Book Review: How to Write Short

This 2013 book by Roy Peter Clark, which is subtitled “Word Craft for Fast Times,” is apparently already considered a classic text. Somehow, I didn’t discover it until 2024. (Well, not “somehow,” I was busy practicing what it preaches.)

When I spotted this book on the shelves at Unabridged, I was immediately hooked by the title of the introduction: When Words Are Worth a Thousand Pictures. Now that’s a philosophy that I can agree with!

Clark begins the book with the advice that a test reader or editor can come to the writer’s rescue for the final polish. I was always delighted when my editors — Wendy and Susanna in particular — would cut an additional word or two from my own work.

The book is made up of short chapters that discuss and demonstrate each strategy, and which end with writing exercises that drive the points home. In all, there are 35 chapters. It would be difficult for me to narrow down the list to my favorites; I enjoyed each of them.

Writing short, Clark teaches, is the result of wit, focus, and polish. These are the literary values of textual brevity:

Remember that great writing in an informal style is the product of a set formal practices, including the intentional deletion of function words; the use of contractions and other abbreviations; and the employment of slang dialect, and other idioms.

Here are just a few of the many tidbits that spoke to me:

• Practice writing plain sentences that contain a grace note — one interesting word that stands out.
• Miss Belinda Blurb is an eponymous fictitious character whose exaggerated praise was used to sell books and magazines.
• Silence — or white space — creates the canvas on which the best work can stand out for full appreciation.
• While reading, notice how patterns of two and three emerge. Two elements divide the world for analysis; three expand and encompass the whole.
• The shorter the passage, the greater the value of each word.
• Brevity comes from selection and not compression.
• SEO is killing the craft of writing and is replacing it with algorithmic blandness.

I highly recommend this book for any writer. Your local bookshop probably has it, but you can also find it at the Amazon, of course.

PS: Note how the clever design of the cover utilizes forced perspective to create an optical illusion.