Creative Writing for People Who Can't Not Write

I don't agree with the following explanation for the English place name Torpenhow Hill on page 105: "In England there is to this day a place called Torpenhow Hill. That name shows the four layers of British habitation up to this point in our story. "Tor" is the oldest, a pre-Celtic (possibly Iberian) word meaning "hill" Pen is Celtic for "hill" How is from Danish haugr, which means "hill" And of course Hill is English. So it is that Torpenhow Hill means "Hillhillhill" Hill." I think it is more likely Torpenhow Hill means a "Cottage on a Hill" since torp means cottage in Swedish and Danish; this word was introduced by the Vikings to England.

Lindskoog, commended by author C.S.Lewis for her clarity of insight and style, writes to help writers relay the in-formed (in the original sense of the word) teachings of experience, mind and heart. "The world," she says, "has enough suffering in it without unsuccessful writing." Bad writing is marked by confusion and waste. It ranges from the $2 million spent annually by a telephone equipment firm to explain its incomprehensible instruction manuals, to bending the written word to serve political ploy or commercial greed. Using this book we can convert business, legal, political, academic, sports or any other jargon into clear prose. This is a skill, notes Lindskoog, which can either land us a great job or get us fired.Creative Writing warns against confusing successful writing with material gain. The enduring reward is the hard-won triumph that comes from knowing how to use words to break through the Jericho walls of indifference, ignorance, and hostility thrown up against truth. When writing is powerful enough to make people think, the author--be it South African playwright Athol Fugard or a mother organising her neighborhood against drug pushers--risks suffering the consequences. Sometimes the only reward is the knowledge that the written word founded in truth is stronger than censorship, assassinations, and threats.Lindskoog and 30 guest contributors--including science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, Melvin Maddocks of Christian Science Monitor fame, historians, poets, and scientists--offer practical details for buttressing truth with the written word. Each chapter concludes with mind-food exercises designed to combat the spreading epidemic of bad writing, that "fungus infection that seems to thrive in the warm, damp atmosphere of schools." Readers, like driven cattle, says C.S. Lewis in his chapter of advice, are inclined to escape through unguarded gates. This book is now guarding gates for friends of mine: a scientist leavening his work for the popular press; a lay preacher who has found fresh inspiration for his sermons; a theology student who submits his assignments with greater confidence to rigorous scrutiny; and an English teacher/playwright/story teller who announced his maiden publication for children with a run of 10,000 copies. Truthful writing can be successful.A review by S. E. Cregier -END-