8-1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better

Four stars

Daphne Gray-Grant's weekly e-newsletter, Power Writing, always starts with a word count and estimated reading time, something I appreciate in my world of wordiness and overly technical writing. Each newsletter offers concise, helpful tips to punch up prose. Gray-Grant uses colorful, image-evoking words to draw the reader in.

Gray-Grant's slim book, 8-1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better is available only on her Web site, Publicationcoach.com. I'm not one of those people addressed in her introduction...those who struggle with writer's block or feelings of inadequacy about their writing. Writing comes fairly easily to me. However, I'm not a particularly patient editor of my own writing--perhaps it's because I spend so much time editing other people's work in my job! I also know that I could make my writing more punchy and effective. And I'm vastly more comfortable in nonfiction than in fiction, the opposite of my fiction-writing husband.

I read this book in a day (I can't say that about many books I read), and I know it will make my writing more effective. Gray-Grant outlines 8-1/2 simple steps of the writing process (research-writing-editing). I already use many of the techniques she provides, but I plan to begin applying the new techniques right away.