Spellbinding Sentences: A Writer's Guide to Achieving Excellence and Captivating Readers

Nitty, gritty exercises that can transform your writing. The work is worth it.

Full disclosure: I hired Barbara Baig about 3 years ago after reading her book "How to Become a Writer." I was mostly interested in getting a better understanding of English grammar and syntax, but about 18 months ago I started asking her to look at scenes from a novel I was struggling with. Yesterday I learned I made the finalist list in the 2015 Faulkner-Wisdom Novel-in-Progress contest. That would never have happened without Baig's instruction. By the time I started working with Baig, I'd been a freelance book copyeditor for 15 years and was moving to a corporate position, where it was no longer enough to know the Chicago Manual of Style and have a "gut instinct" on how to edit something and make it better; I had to be able to debate grammar, syntax, and style with professional journalists on a daily basis. Stuff I should've been taught in elementary school but never was. Stuff that I learned working with Baig and by doing many of the exercises she suggests in her new book. When she first explained her approach 3 years ago, I was HIGHLY skeptical. It didn't sound like fun and I didn't think it would work. Boy, was I wrong. I can see how to some people Baig's exercises seem be "boring" and "repetitive." Everyone is different. All I can say is that these nitty, gritty exercises, done repeatedly over weeks and months, transformed my writing. Made it easier for me to express what I want when I want. And to explain to others what I was doing when I edited their work. Over the years I've become wary of "how to write" books. Many are entertaining and full of inspirational prose. But they weren't making my writing any better. Baig's books cover the unsexy but necessary drill work being a good writer demands--the kind of drill work I needed to take my writing to the next level. Read more