Keep It Short

A Practical Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

By: Charles Euchner

Narrated by: Steve White

This book really makes you want to write! Whether you are starting your first novel or blogging up a storm, this book will make you a better communicator in the 21st century, the Age of Brevity and the Internet.

If you can keep your writing brief and concise, you can save countless hours of frustration - for yourself and your readers. It's hard at first, but by mastering a few simple "tricks of the trade," you will not only keep it short, you will also discover new ideas, find new angles, and write with more zip. This short guide shows the way.

If you need to steal or borrow it, go ahead. Otherwise buy a copy. While you're at it, buy some for your coworkers and friends too.

©2016 Lisa Hagan Books (P)2017 Beacon Audiobooks

It helps me to write better in English.

Charles Euchner offers a comprehensive system for mastery for both novice and experienced writers. As a non-native English speaker, I greatly benefited from “The Elements of Writing.” Euchner’s program, based on cutting-edge research on neuroscience and learning, helps your brain to work for — not against — you.

I was born and raised in Yemen and spoke Arabic most of my life; in 2016, I ‎came to the U.S. to pursue post-secondary education. My English was severely limited. I had plenty of good ideas but struggled to express them in English. Reading “The Elements of ‎Writing” was a revelation.

I found the principles of “start strong, finish strong” especially useful. As studies show, readers pay the most attention to the beginnings and endings of sentences and paragraphs. Euchner’s “Landscape View” technique helps you take advantage of this reality by focusing on what matters — on sentences and their lengths, variety, beginnings, and endings.

Euchner treats writing as a storytelling enterprise and ‎provides tools so we can tell stories effectively. “Every element of your writing should take readers from one place to another,” he writes. “Act as a friendly, reliable, and sometimes surprising guide.” Page by page, Euchner shows how to do that.

Because everyone recommends it, I read “The Elements of Style,” by William Strunk and ‎E.B. White, but it did not answer my questions. By ‎serendipity, I found this book, which is more helpful because it penetrates all of the ‎fundamental elements of writing.

I have studied at ‎English Intensive Programs in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the U.S. (at ‎the University of Miami and the University of Pennsylvania). Euchner’s approach helped me ‎more than all of these programs — combined — because it gets at the bottom line of ‎storytelling, writing, and editing.

Whether you grew up speaking English or are a non-native English speaker, Charles Euchner’s writing system will help. I now skim my copy of “‎The Elements of Writing” before writing: It helps me to write better in English; I believe it can help you too.