Rozelle emphasized wordsmithing in the editing process. Although the book was for description and setting, the principles that he presented could apply for the entire book-writing craft.

Wordsmithing was a favorite word where he explained how to phrase each sentence to achieve the best impact and make the magic of reading shine. The tools, the lessons of observation, the re-reading until it says what you want the reader to feel---all make the editing process profitable and necessary. He did not hesitate to call it work--but he encouraged you in your endeavors by the cohesive unit and flow that you will achieve.
Much is not 'science' of do's and don'ts, but 'art' where it must sound and feel right. Another reason to learn to observe better.

I do wish that I knew how to organize all the notes that he suggests jotting down for later use.

A helpful resource. ( )

People always tell writers to "show, not tell," but they don't usually tell you how to do that. This book was extremely helpful for me, because I "tell" all the time without realizing it. I wouldn't have been able to fix this problem without knowing the difference between the two. Rozelle is obviously not only a writer, but a good teacher as well, and his expertise shows in this book. ( )

Writing books are so dififcult to rate, because their value is in how they improve my writing or give me inspiration/insights into writing. If it tells me something I already know, then it's "not as good" as a book that told me something new. But to another reader, the "obvious" information may be something they've never known, and have great leaps in their writing progress as a result.

So, for me at least, this book covered a lot of things I knew, but a few different ways to approach descriptive writing. My favorite thing in the book was the passages from different novels. Rozelle has a terrific eye for picking beautiful passages. I read [b:Perfume: The Story of a Murderer|343|Perfume The Story of a Murderer|Patrick Süskind|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328815062s/343.jpg|2977727] because the passage from this book was amazing. Really, if you're not a writer but simply love books with great description, pick up this book and flip through to find the excerpts from other novels. You can create a "to read" list just from that.

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This was actually better than I expected. I have a tendency to go through life oblivious to details (or anything else much, either) and it helped me pay better attention to my surroundings and experiencing things with all five (or six) senses. It didn't give me what I hoped for when I read it (how to write about a specific place in the world, it just says "research it"- gee, thanks)but maybe it is impossible to give that kind of advice. But it did give me a lot more of what I didn't expect, and I've realized even more how this is truly the thing that can take a book from just ok to something above and beyond the rest, if you can do it well. So if you write fiction, or want to, I would recommend this book. ( )

I have both this version and also the older Elements of Fiction writing book on 'Setting' by Bickham. Both were excellent, but I found the older version to be slightly more helpful in fleshing out the setting-as-a-character in my epic fantasy work. This is the newer of the two and it relies more on internet-research. When it comes to setting, there is nothing like being there and speaking to people who have been there to get a 'feel' for a place, I have discovered. But once again, both books were excellent. For me, I preferred the older version. ( )