Book Review: Editor-Proof Your Writing

Title: Editor-Proof Your Writing: 21 Steps to the clear prose publishers and agents crave
Author: Don McNair
Genre: Writing Helps/Non-fiction
Recommended Ages: 18 & Up

Introduction:

I really wanted to like this book. As an author, I wanted to know what I could do to help my writing a little more. There were definitely some good tips in the book, but there were other parts that I had a harder time with. Not that they weren’t good points, they were just made in a manner I didn’t appreciate. Or sometimes, they were things I had heard many times before.

Clarity:

1/1

Don McNair made his points clearly and succinctly and explained things well. For instance, I think I finally understand a little better how to show instead of tell. If I can just implement it.

Usability:

.75/1

There were quite a few things I will be able to use from the book and others that I already knew or didn’t agree with.

Readability:

.25/1

Overall, the writing itself was easy to read. There were a few sections that I wish I could have skimmed over because of the content in them. Yes, I am an adult, but that doesn’t mean I want to fill my mind with those things. Thus the reason for the rating as well as the 18+ reading recommendation.

Overall writing quality:

.75/1

The writing quality was good. As mentioned above, though, some of the examples made me very uncomfortable. One of them was borderline erotica and it didn’t need to be. He was talking about the need for the characters to like each other, but also have conflict. He used a man-woman relationship as the example and it could have easily been a non-romantic relationship.

Un-put-down-ability:

0/1

I put the book down many times. Sometimes it was due to other things I needed to do, but most of the time it was because I had to stop. I forced myself to finish the book so I could read all of the tips, but I cringed anytime I came across an example just in case it might have content I didn’t appreciate.

Conclusion

2.75/5

If you need a book that will help you edit your book, this is a good book for that, especially if you haven’t read very many writing books. If you do not like the above-mentioned content, I would skip reading the examples in chapters 9 and 10.

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