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Murder Your Darlings
- And Other Gentle Writing Advice from Aristotle to Zinsser
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Categories: Education & Learning, Words, Language & Grammar
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Publisher's Summary
From one of America's most influential teachers, a collection of the best writing advice distilled from 50 language books - from Aristotle to Strunk and White.
With so many excellent writing guides lining bookstore shelves, it can be hard to know where to look for the best advice. Should you go with Natalie Goldberg or Anne Lamott? Maybe William Zinsser or Stephen King would be more appropriate. Then again, what about the classics - Strunk and White, or even Aristotle himself?
Thankfully, your search is over. In Murder Your Darlings, Roy Peter Clark, who has been a beloved and revered writing teacher to children and Pulitzer Prize winners alike for more than 30 years, has compiled a remarkable collection of more than 100 of the best writing tips from 50 of the best writing books of all time.
With a chapter devoted to each key strategy, Clark expands and contextualizes the original author's suggestions and offers anecdotes about how each one helped him or other writers sharpen their skills. An invaluable resource for writers of all kinds, Murder Your Darlings is an inspiring and edifying ode to the craft of writing.
Critic Reviews
"What emerges is an all-encompassing guide to a life spent with words...Reading Clark is like sitting in on a conversational master class. Writer-readers will clamor for more." (Courtney Eathorne, Booklist)
"A party-popper of inspiration." (Mignon Fogarty, author of Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing)
"This book is magic. Open any page of Murder Your Darlings and dive in. You'll quickly find yourself pulled into Roy Peter Clark's folksy and gentle voice, and his distillation of the wisdom of more than 50 writing books. Through this appreciation, he opens the door to writing books ancient and modern, and to scores of inspiring strategies and tools. He zeroes in on the craft, but also the soul of writing - our voice and identity as writers, as well as our mission and purpose. Along the way, 'America's Writing Coach' encourages us with his greatest lesson - that we can all get better, every day. I am in love with Murder Your Darlings. This is the book I want to give to every writer." (Diana K. Sugg, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and writing coach and enterprise editor at The Baltimore Sun)
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What listeners say about Murder Your Darlings
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Maddy
- 07-25-20
Not just a good book on writing, also, just a good book.
Dope book. At first i was a bit twisted up over the narration - sounded like a pompus twat - but the narrators snarky humour won me over so much that i may have been too busy enjoying myself, to actually learn.
Absolute highlight for me:
-unadulterated bro love for william zinsser - including - referring to him, in his hilarious voice, as the “Z-man”
Im an absolute abuser of audibles exchange policy, and for me, this is a keeper.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nicholas
- 06-04-20
How To Write's Greatest Hits
Roy Peter Clark has managed to distill a lifetime of research writing into a succinct best of. Each chapter is dedicate to a different writer's guide with Clark pulling out the most important lessons. With advice ranging from the obvious to the complex, there is something to be learnt here for every writer.
Clark has not just written a "how to write" guide, he's provide a treasure trove of book recommendations for the reader to explore next.
Jefferson Mays does an excellent job as well, resisting the urge to "do the voices" of the numerous writers quoted throughout the book.
1 person found this helpful