Customer Reviews

Spunk & Bite: A Writer's Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language & Style

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Arthur Plotnik's "Spunk & Bite" is not a primer for beginners. It is a fun-filled romp in which Plotnik, an author, editor, and former publishing executive, demonstrates why slavishly following the rules of Strunk & White's revered classic, "The Elements of Style," will lead to writing that is DOA. In an age of increasingly short attention spans, Plotnik contends that writing must have "punch and vibrancy" in order to grab and hold the reader.

"Spunk & Bite" is divided into eight chapters: Flexibility, Freshness, Texture, Word, Force, Form, Clarity, and Contemporaneity. Plotnik explores such topics the use of arcane words and neologisms, choice of diction, how sentence fragments can energize your prose, and even how to apply the principles of feng shui to writing. Some of Plotnik's advice is pretty standard: avoid cliches and dead metaphors, shun dangling participles and misplaced modifiers, be careful that your subjects and verbs agree, and, for the most part, stay away from the passive voice. We've read all this before in many other writing handbooks.

What is unique about this book is Plotnik's witty and irreverent remarks about the wisdom of taking calculated risks. Try using an original "one-off" phrase if it suits your purpose and don't be afraid to experiment with lively tropes or figures of speech. Will you occasionally make dreadful mistakes? Absolutely. However, you have a great deal more to lose (especially your audience) by playing it too safe. Plotnik gives many examples both from his own writing and from such luminaries as Betty Friedan, Albert Camus, and Toni Morrison, to illustrate his points.

I particularly enjoyed the section on the omission of quotation marks to set off dialogue, a trend that has been in vogue for a while. In his delightful chapter, "Daringly Quoteless Dialogue," Plotkin surveys three literary review editors who offer their opinions on unmarked dialogue. Are writers who eschew quotation marks artistic and avante garde or are they merely pretentious and irritating? Plotnik says that "convention is there to be upended; but it is never to be taken lightly." When you throw out the rules, you had better do so skillfully and with good reason. "Spunk & Bite" will not transform you into a better writer instantly, but it may give you the courage to try new ways of bringing your moribund writing back to life.

Unlike the writer's rule book, Elements of Style, aka Strunk & White, this concise volume offers some thought-provoking suggestions for writing with an extra edge, the advantage of a creative boost in an increasingly competitive market. Strictly following the rules sometimes yields a loss of flavor, or, as Plotnik phrases the issue, "dead writing". Although decidedly unorthodox, these chapters are "meant to energize writing and liberate it from certain outdated style conventions". Flexibility in construction and a freshness of application highlight his approach, avoiding rules that weigh down the prose and thinking a bit outside the box; for example, indulging in oxymoron, indirection and understatement as mechanisms to increase interest. By all means write that banal first draft, urges Plotnik, then "sniff out and destroy everything that smells predictable, clichéd, formulaic, labored or lazy".

Plotnik, author of The Elements of Editing, leaves no stone unturned, no question unchallenged in chapters that address texture, language, force and stimulation, punctuation, clarity and writing for the contemporary marketplace. Using illustrative examples from established writers, unabashedly tossing in his own cleverly-phrased headings and a medley of metaphors, the author wields language like a sharp sword, enthusiastically slashing the hackneyed and overused, probing and questioning, the style as energetic as his intentions. With all its vitality and eagerness, this is a book to be taken seriously, filled with innovative interpretations, a challenge to transcend the ordinary, to consider a fresh, open-minded approach.

The text is sprinkled with suggestions, such as "Internet Word-a-Day Sources: A Sampling", a list of sites that will send word features via email by subscription (wordspy.com; vocabula.com; wordsmith.org/awad). These sites can be readily culled for "writer's words" to add extra context to the work. Other topics are "Style and Frequency of Foreignisms (keeping in mind that such substitutes wear thin with overuse); "Literary Editors on Quotation Style"; and "Deeper Secrets of Semicolons: Some Q & A's". Breeching the ramparts of the traditional, Plotnik kick-starts the writing process into a media savvy century, where distraction is anathema. Writers must forcefully grab a reader's attention, taking advantage of a new freedom born of modern communication, anchored in the conventional, but on the alert for those defining phrases or style that is both engaging and original. Luan Gaines/ 2005.

Where was this delightful little writing book when I was a working editor and looking for holiday treats for my staff or take-aways for meetings or special occasions? Unfortunately, at that time, back in the 20th century, it was probably still churning around in the author's brain. But not to complain. Now that I'm retired, I`ve at least had time to buy it and read it for myself. I've enjoyed this author's previous offerings on language (Elements of Expression) and the art of editing (Elements of Editing), but this one is clearly his best--intelligently organized, easily absorbed, and always entertaining. It's not a style manual or a "how to write" book as such (we have enough of those), but it's a volume anyone interested in words or already engaged in writing is bound to enjoy and profit from. It's open season on dull prose. The examples are contemporary and well chosen and the advice proferred with wit and, well, spunk. Spunk and Bite would certainly be a worthy addition to any writer's shelf or bedtable.

I bought this book because I've long-admired Plotnik's column in The Writer Magazine and have saved issues solely because I knew I'd want to revisit a particular piece of his. Spunk & Bite is best of all things Plotnik; broken down into easily digestible chapters and within each chapter he augments his points with entertaining sidebars. The book lends itself to daily visitation, it's almost like a little spiritual guide for writers -- yet, it's packed with practical nuggets.

Someone once asked a famous writer if he thought they had what it takes to make it and the writer replied, "I don't know -- do you love words?" Arthur Plotnik loves words and in this book he challenges conventional wisdom, preserves appropriate sacred tenets and invents some tenets of his own. Spunk & Bite is the kind of book I see myself revisiting cover to cover at least once a year or to simply open up to a random spot when I need inspiration. There's not a wasted page anywhere; a long overdue manifesto for contemporary writing.

Like Strunk & White's The Elements of Style, Arthur Plotnik's Spunk & Bite is a must-have for every writer's desktop. This witty tome exudes panache as it delivers all the world-class writerly advice one could hope to acquire--in a fast-moving 253 pages (with handy detailed index at the back).

Plotnik, noted author, long-time editor and award-winning Irish poet, wallops a homer with S & B. Consider a few of the subjects he spotlights with consummate verve: The Pleasures of Surprise, Words with Music and Sploosh, Enallage: A Fun Grammatical Get, and Writing for New Generations.

Most books of writing advice are about as appetizing as day-old pablum. Spunk strives vigorously to avoid pablumocity--and succeeds. Plotnik doesn't just write about spunky and biting language; he illustrates it in his own writing. Here's a sample from the section on onomatopoeia: "BZZZZ...RRRIP...NYEEOW. That's the sound of a writer's brain at work. When it comes to shaping experience into words, the brain box needs all the rhetorical tools it can hold. One of the oldest such tools--yet as contemporary as steel-cutting lasers--is onomatopoeia, a form of 'sound symbolism.' Like all power tools, it must be well-honed fitted to the job and used with extreme caution."

Throughout the book, Plotnik exhorts us to banish the bland, to inoculate against the insipid. He eschews dullsville writing and presents dozens of examples of bracing wordsmanship to chew on. As a bonus, he points us to a wealth of thesauri and a bounty of word-a-day web sites for further exploration.

Spunk & Bite is billed as "A writer's guide to punchier, more engaging language and style." It's all that...and quite likely the best writing book of the year.

I'm not much of a writer myself, so I've been checking out the writing guidebooks. Especially with reviews I find that I run out of adjectives - "excellent," "great," "tremendous." This book is, at times, all of those. Although I'm really not that far into I must admit that it inspired me at least to write this review.

Spunk & Bite is filled with excellent examples gleaned mostly from sports magazines and periodicals with the occasional novelist tossed in for flavour. In all honesty, I don't think that many of the examples are by great authors but a hearty portion of them are individually good - I suppose everyone gets lucky. Plotnik himself produces quality prose, but I have to wonder why I haven't heard of him before this book; I'd like to see advice from an accomplished author such as Douglas Coupland or Tom Wolfe.

Nevertheless this is a useful book that fills a much-needed niche, and I highly recommend it. If anything, it will serve to get you writing, regardless of whether you use its examples. And practicing only improves what you write. Check it out.

Spunk & Bite is the ham to Strunk & White's eggs, the salt to their pepper, the bloom booster to their weed killer. Strunk & White is the noble march of the penguins; Spunk & Bite is exhilarating eagles' flight. Grounding is good. So is soaring. Plotnick's advice has rules, just as Strunk & White's classic Elements of Style does. But Plotnick encourages writers not to remain penguinized, and he shows how to fly--with both flight and crash examples from literature. How could advice labeled "The Confident Tagmeister," "Words with Foreign Umami," and "Rope-a-Trope Contenders" not inspire creativity? If you are a writer, do not miss this fresh education. If you are simply a word lover, do not miss this fresh education. Every chapter delightfully embodies Plotnick's phrase: "language: acrobatic and incandescent." A bonus is Plotnick's light tone--you will laugh as you learn.

If you're looking for something to kick start your writing and bring it to the next level, look no further! Arthur Plotnik's Spunk & Bite will liberate and inspire you.

Spunk & Bite takes on language and style from a contemporary point of view. FINALLY!!!! A writing guide that isn't fifty years old and outdated. Spunk & Bite is right on target with the language and style of today's world. It has cool tips on how to improve word choice, texture, sentence structure, diction, form, etc. Arthur Plotnik debates and compares old grammar rules and styles with today's fast-paced, constantly changing, creative ways. He shares the kind of expert solutions and suggestions you would only find if you were working with a professional editor.

Spunk & Bite has completely transformed my writing. I'm re-writing a novel and I've seen a drastic improvement since reading it.

I recommend this book for anyone serious about improving their writing. It will answer many of those rarely discussed style and word choice questions that are haunting you. The wisdom this book provides will insure you make the best choices for your writing material.

Not your standard 'elements of style' type book. I actually felt like the author was talking to me. I gained a lot of confidence by reading this book. It teaches you that some rules should be broken...and that they're not necessarily rules, only 'old school' guidelines. I felt much better about my use of adverbs in my own writing after reading "Spunk and Bite." I won't ever loan it out...I refer to it often! Excellent reference book!

If you have restrained your writing based on the worthy and revered, though somewhat staid, Elements of Style by Strunk & White, this one is for you. I originally bought this as a gift for an editor/friend, but couldn't bear to part with it once I read through it. Guess I'd better order another copy!