Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life

Use words. Love words. Live a life of words. Because you have been made words and are being saved by the Word.

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Wordsmithy is for writers of every sort, whether experienced veterans, still just hoping, or somewhere in between. This book exhorts writers to explore the world, to read incessantly, to love mechanical helps, to be fine with being lousy (for a while), to learn languages, and to keep a commonplace book. Through a series of out-of-the-ordinary lessons, each with its own takeaway points and recommended readings, Douglas Wilson provides indispensable guidance, showing how to develop the writer's craft and the kind of life from which good writing comes.

What People Are Saying:

"Douglas Wilson can flat-out write. He has put this talent to use in writing over thirty books and countless articles, blog posts and the like. In his newest book, Wordsmithy, he offers up a series of hot tips for the writing life, a collection of lessons that he has learned along the way." -Tim Challies, The Gospel Coalition

"One of the most helpful guides to the writing life. The life at the end of that sentence is the most important part, as it’s advice about that which makes Wordsmithy valuable. As someone who is published, who has given himself over to the silly pretentiousness of being called a “writer,” who has struggled to keep a world beyond words, I was particularly challenged by Wilson’s advice. It’s the sort of book I wish I’d found two years ago, or better, ten or fifteen." -Matthew Lee Anderson, The End of Our Exploring

"This pithy book is fun to read" -Andy Naselli

"[Doug Wilson] will spin your head with prose and make you wonder how he did it. He won’t tell you how he did it, but he’ll write five more and then point to authors who do it all the time. He shows young writers still looking for their voice how to find one. You’ll read this book fast and go back to it again. Wilson has wisdom only a wise man knows." -John Starke, The Gospel Coalition

"Aspiring writers do not need another pandering, pat-on-the-back, feel-good writer's manual. They don't need any more cheap promises for zero-to-bestseller surefire success. What they need is something with no-nonsense substance, and Douglas Wilson offers it in Wordsmithy. Quick, punchy, and immensely wise, Wordsmithy is a cut-to-the-chase collection of important and sometimes unexpected tips for the writing life." -Brett McCracken, author, Hipster Christianity: When Church & Cool Collide

"This book just nails what it takes to be a writer. And it isn't just a matter of being a sensitive creative soul. A writer needs to live in the actual world, to 'read the kind of stuff you wish you could write,' and to love language. This book embodies what it preaches in its practicality, in how funny and fun to read it is, and in the way its words dance through the mind." -Gene Edward Veith, Provost and Professor of Literature, Patrick Henry College

"Wordsmithy is funny, memorable, and full of thought-provoking advice." -Credo Magazine, August 2012