In 1983, when I was 18-years old, I encountered a community of eccentric sailors who lived in a secret anchorage on the far side of the spoil islands a quarter-mile from Miami City Hall. What I found there inspired me and challenged me to expand my perspectives. Though the Dinner Key Anchorage was often dismissed as a community of "derelicts, bums, winos and thieves," I found instead a group of articulate, capable, innovative, educated, and highly skilled people who took me in and literally 'taught me the ropes.' Many of them traveled the world, depending on little but good fortune and...

Communicate clearly. Engage readers. Bring settings to life. Develop your personal writing style. Add impact and color to your prose. Educate, teach, and inform effectively. Make dialog flow. Learn "the rules" by understanding them. Master the secrets of powerful writing. Improve your writing skills without boring exercises, magic memorization tricks, torturous grammar lessons, and unbearable sentence diagrams. This guide introduces common mistakes and sticky spots encountered even by experienced writers. Learning to recognize weak writing patterns is as easy as reading about them. Simple...