Advice from the Masters: Tracy Kidder

May 7, 2014 | Better Writing

I discovered Tracy Kidder through his book, The Soul of a New Machine. I fell in love with his writing though a marvelous chapter in that book, titled, “Pinball.” If you’ve ever wondered why some people will furiously to do great work under awful conditions and for almost no money, that chapter will explain it to you. Kidder won a Pulitzer Prize for the book.

Kidder and editor Richard Todd wrote a wonderful book titled Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction. Here’s a tidbit of their joint advice.

“Writers [also] profit from knowing when events actually occurred. It is always a good idea to construct a detailed time line and, for some, to write rough drafts chronologically.”

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