The Elements of Writing

REVISED AND UPDATED FOR 2024.Is writing your superpower?
It should be. Like it or not, you have to write in school and on the job. Even in "non-writing" professions -- like engineering, coding, medicine, accounting, and more -- you have to write emails and memos and reports. In The Elements of Writing, author Charles Euchner shows how to master writing the natural way. Euchner is the author of acclaimed books on civil rights, cities, politics, and baseball. He has taught writing at Yale and Columbia and directed a think tank at Harvard. Most recently he was special projects editor at New America. Whether you are a newbie or a seasoned pro, The Elements of Writing offers powerful tips and hacks to help you take your writing to a higher level. Most people are natural storytellers and writers. But most of us have been force-fed techniques that do not tap our natural ways of learning and communicating. All too often, would-be writers get turned off. To write well, we need a different way. We need to understand the secret "code" of storytelling, mechanics, and analysis.
Cracking the code In The Elements of Writing, Euchner provides that code. He shows you dozens of priceless tools that you won't find anywhere else, including: The Golden Rule of Writing
The Character Dossier
The Wheel of Character Types
Moments in the Story
The not-so-hidden formula for action
The real requirement for good details
The Hinge Sentence
Paragraph Budgets and Tabloid Headlines
The two key ideas for writing with style: Long-Tossing and Stacking
Super Models
The Keys to Brainstorming
And much more.
Praise for The Elements of WritingUsers of The Elements of Writing praise its power to transform writing.
"It's a revelation," says an immigrant who had struggled with writing before discovering this book.
"I feel smarter just having this book by my bedside," says the founder of a New York PR and storytelling firm.
"This is the best book on how to write well that I have ever seen," says an emeritus engineering professor.
"On a scale of 1-10, it's a 12," says the training director of a pharma company.
"Trust me-it works," says a former U.S. ambassador.
"As accessible as an old friend," says the director of an award-winning college media program.
"I wish I had known about this years ago," says an Australian author. "This has been one of the most helpful books I have ever found."
"Charlie understands how the world works and can communicate it better than nearly anyone I know," says an award-winning policy writer.
"I learned more about writing than I had in an entire lifetime," says the head of a science research program at Yale.
The 1-2-3 CodeThe Elements of Writing is a one-of-a-kind book. Simple and straightforward, easy to use, it shows EXACTLY what to do to master EVERY writing skill. It works on two levels:
Step by step, Euchner explains simple skills you can apply right away. You probably know some of these simple skills already. Then Euchner builds on this base, filling all the gaps of your writing skills.
Want to see how top apply these skills? Euchner uses case studies to show how great writers and storytellers -- from Homer to Shakespeare to Hemingway to Capote, and dozens more -- apply the skills that Euchner explains.
Ready to launch?It's time to make writing your greatest asset -- whatever you do, wherever you do it -- with The Elements of Writing.