Wordsmithy: A Hot Trip through the Best of the English Language, and How to Use it Like a Knock-Out, Sexy Writer!

I want to be a novelist, an essayist. Please don't misjudge me: I don't have any pretensions. Actually, Doug Wilson has just whacked me over the head with 120 pages of pithy advice, advice for people like me. I'm a person who wants to write, but hasn't done too much of that. Wilson says: Be humble. Live a real life. Start writing. I can't wait to begin.

Wilson starts his book with: "In the world of public speaking, it is a commonplace for young aspirants to the lectern to be told something like 'tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them.'" He quickly follows this advice, with seven words of advice. They are, in short:

1. Know something about the world (the real world outside the library)
2. Read (everything and anything until your head explodes)
3. Read mechanical helps (Writen by word fussers, and their dissenters)
4. Stretch before your routines (try different forms)
5. Be at peace with being lousy for a while (the humility part, but not self-loathing)
6. Learn other languages (especially those upstream: Latin, Greek, Anglo-Saxson)
7. Keep a commonplace book (a compilation of useful phrases)

Wilson proceeds to unpack each of these points with a chapter of seven sub-points for each. So you get 49 nuggets of wisdom, ranging from life habits conducive to writing, to questions of mechanics and style.

I've read a few howto writing books, style books, and writer's memoirs. But I've never read one that exerts such a page-turning grip on the reader. Wilson is hilarious, in the witty, thoughtful style (the romping, extravagant style too). This a thoroughly enjoyable book to read. You read it for the advice, but you read on to the next point, the next chapter, to see how Wilson makes his point. Wordsmithy is chock full of humor, clever uses of the English language, and lots of inside jokes. Wilson teaches eminently well by example.

Wordsmithy is full of great advice anyone could benefit from, but this book is written to very specific audience. Generally to a Christian audience. Wilson is at pains to show how being a faithful writer fits into a faithful Christian life. Wilson's Christian perspective is unobtrusive but frequent throughout the book. This reader greatly appreciated Wilson's religious perspective, and the skill with which he weaves it into the narrative.

This little book was enjoyable and helpful, from cover to cover. It has inspired me to write more, and write better. Per Wilson's suggestion, I've started reading through my dictionary (on page four). Hopefully this book has also inspired me to live better, and we can ask nothing more from our books.