Other People's Writerly Advice Tip #5

This helpful suggestion series returns after a short hiatus of...what is it...year and a half? Anyway, last time you'll remember that the tip was on why you should get an MFA. Well, you've had time by now to get that MFA and write your first or possibly fourth novel and now you're in the heat of revision. So here's Martin Amis's tip on style that every reviser needs. I ran across it in a footnote as I read his memoir Experience:

John Gross was one of my two significant early editors, along with Terence Kilmartin of the Observer. he instilled a rule in me, one I still follow in fictional prose as well as journalism and book reviews. Never start consecutive paragraphs with the same word--unless (I add to myself) you begin at least three paragraphs this way and the reader can tell that you're doing it on purpose. John is right. It looks uglily inattentive, clunking against the eye as well as the ear.

This tip I think is obviously true, but I wonder at its mechanical or mathematical nature. Won't there be or isn't there already a program that will scan a piece of writing for style. Image StyleCheck right there with SpellCheck and GrammarCheck. Instead of an anthropomorphized paperclip, a little picture of Joyce pops up: "Are you trying to writing in stream of consciousness?" Ah, the future! Where all our soul-crushing laziness will be realized!

Escape from New York

I'm back from the AWP conference in New York City. And though I'd love to yammer on about the writerly goodness of it all and the cool city fun, I'm exhausted so I'll just list what I'm returning with:

1. A signed copy of Money by Martin Amis (He said he knew a "Craig"--I presume that means he doesn't want to know another one)

2. An unsigned copy of Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners (She was sick most of the conference, but I met Gavin J. Grant at the Small Beer Press table, and he was a great guy...though he kept raising the prices of his books when knew I was interested).

3. A copy of The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant (Grant said everything on the table was half price until I picked that up and then it was everything except the anthology)

4. A copy of the awe-inspiringly designed Ninth Letter magazine (My friend Eric Vrooman has a brilliant piece of satire in this issue in the form of a water bill)

5. A copy of roger, an art & literary magazine (I'll be in the issue coming out in May...I think).

Those are the goodies, kiddies. Now if only I didn't have to teach and could just read my head off...