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GETTING STARTED AS AN AUTHOR by Vernon Howard

GETTING STARTED AS AN AUTHOR

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Pub Date: April 26th, 1965
Publisher: Sterling

How to organize written material, with a handy check list of self criticizing questions for beginning writers to use, is the plan of the book. The interview, the essay, the short story and verse are covered. One of the strongest points of the book is that Mr. Howard continually emphasizes the need to read the great writers and analyze what it is they have done and why they have done it in terms of techniques. The weakest points of the book are the suggestions and examples held up as models. They are pedestrian and worn-out. For instance, there is ""The Comical Letter"" and ""The Impish Interview."" These gimmicks can be well done, but they have not been here. Nor, has there been much effort to define the specific terms of the writing craft. This is a handbook that will be of best use to those souls who man the newspapers, magazines and yearbooks of the junior and senior highschools with more energy than originality.