A Practical, Economic Guide
A Feature Review of
Start with a Word: On the Craft and Adventure of Writing
Marilyn McEntyre
Paperback: Eerdmans, 2025
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Reviewed by Ann Byle
There are no shortcuts when it comes to writing (Don’t get me started on AI), not to mention learning to write. You write. Rewrite. Read. You sit in the chair and do the work. There are, however, invaluable aids to make the journey less full of sinkholes. Marilyn McEntyre’s new book Start with a Word is one.
Each sentence is clear, concise, and meaty. Each thought is well-developed, each chapter is all it should be and no more. McEntyre gets to the point quickly, makes the point, and moves on.
In her opening chapter, “Read Like a Writer,” she says, “And to writers I say, if you want to write, read. Read slowly. Read curiously. And critically, and deeply, and imaginatively. Pause over sentences that wake you up and consider why” (2).
She also suggests, later in the book, that prose writers trying writing poetry, a kind of bookend to her suggestion that writers read. “I’ll go out on a limb and say here that I don’t think we can write good prose without some practice of poetry,” she says (170).
McEntyre addresses the key components of good writing—whether fiction, nonfiction or poetry—including finding the best beginning sentence or two, using the best words, developing a relationship with your reader, and creating the best ending. She speaks of addressing how events happen in your writing, knowing your narrator, and getting the facts right.
While McEntyre digs deep into these topics, she doesn’t bury the reader in esoteric, academic gobbledygook. Neither does she keep her topics on the level of beginning writers. This is a book for those writers dedicated to the craft who are eager to learn and develop, eager to become the best writer possible.
Here is what you can expect from Start with a Word:
“If all you learn from reading and writing stories and poems is that there are always multiple points of view, ways of telling, identifiable causes, and possible outcomes, you will have become, I believe, a more imaginative, open-minded, compassionate person” (37).
“It may be easier to see how paint or clay invite play, but words, too, invite play. Many of them mean two things, or sound like each other, or just make you smile, like quiddity or frabjous joy. Even when you’re writing about something you take completely seriously, you can afford to play, and in fact it’s healthier for both you and your reader” (124).
“What makes a good ending is an ongoing discussion that remains lively as the currents of storytelling shift and change in response to the social forces that shape our collective tastes” (184).
Along with her sage advice, each chapter includes exercises titled “Try This,” which push us to put her advice into practice. So keep a notebook handy as you wend your way through this book. Examples as wide-ranging as Annie Dillard and the Apostle Paul, as Sylvia Plath and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, serve to deepen McEntyre’s advice and book as a whole. Even her Afterword is a list of “scans” that can improve your writing, including scanning for prepositional phrases, rhythm/cadence, omissions, metaphors, and sounds.
In McEntyre’s typical economic style, she ends the book with just six words: “May all your words be blessings” (187). Indeed.
For those looking for additional recent books on writing and the writing life, consider Sue Monk Kidd’s Writing Creativity and Soul (Knopf, 2025) and Susan Orlean’s Joyride: A Memoir (Avid Reader Press, 2025).
Ann Byle
Ann Byle lives in West Michigan with her science teacher husband, Ray. Their young adult children are in and out regularly. Ann writes for Christianity Today and Publishers Weekly, among other publications, and is author of Chicken Scratch: Lessons on Living Creatively from a Flock of Hens.
 Reading for the Common Good From ERB Editor Christopher Smith "This book will inspire, motivate and challenge anyone who cares a whit about the written word, the world of ideas, the shape of our communities and the life of the church." -Karen Swallow Prior Enter your email below to sign up for our weekly newsletter & download your FREE copy of this ebook! |
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