Wordcraft by Jack Hart (book review)

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Legendary writing coach Jack Hart spent twenty-six years at the Oregonian and has taught students and professionals of all stripes, including bloggers, podcasters, and more than one Pulitzer Prize winner. Good writing, he says, has the same basic attributes regardless of genre or medium. Wordcraft shares Hart’s techniques for achieving those attributes in one of the most broadly useful writing books ever written.

Originally published in 2006 as A Writer’s Coach, the book has been updated to address the needs of writers well beyond print journalists. Hart breaks the writing process into a series of manageable steps, from idea to polishing. Filled with real-world examples, both good and bad, Wordcraft shows how to bring such characteristics as force, brevity, clarity, rhythm, and color to any kind of writing.

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This took a long time to read, not because it was boring or hard to read but because there's so much good information in it that I didn't want to rush! The book is primarily geared toward short-form nonfiction writers, but I found so many tips and nuggets that I could also apply to my book-length fiction and nonfiction.

I especially loved two aspects of this book:

1. It's easy to read.

2. It's FULL of examples.

This isn't a book full of abstract concepts; Hart explains things in their most basic technical terms, then gives examples and explains why they do or don't work.

I wish I'd had this book 18 years ago when I started writing for the local papers--I know I would have produced better articles. I'm late coming to the table for this one, but I'm glad I picked it up. I plan to apply as much of his advice as possible to all of my writing.

A must-have for short-form nonfiction writers.

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For more craft books, check out:

The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler
Writing for Story by John Franklin