Scarlett Thomas tore into James N Frey's new writing book How To Write Damn Good Fiction in Sunday's Independent (not on the web yet, as far as I can see). Not that she needs to, really. I mean, who would dream of buying a book with a title like that?

She obviously doesn't like the idea of 'how to write' books at all, as you can see from the beginning of the review (note the scare quotes):

In 'On Writing', the only contemporary writing 'manual' worth reading, Stephen King gives three of the best pieces of advice for people who want to write. He suggests, among many other things, that would-be writers should sit at a humble desk, should avoid TV and should, above everything else, read a lot of books.

Stephen King's book is great but it's only partly a writing manual. It's an autobiography focussing on his writing life with a 'toolbox' section with some tips on writing. His tip about the humble desk is one of the best tips in the book. He says you should have a humble desk in the corner of the room to remind you 'that art is a support system for life and not the other way round'.

But my favourite tips were in the toolbox. He begins by saying that what he would really have liked to do would have been just to write a book on grammar but that his editor wouldn't let him. He goes on to show that he does understand grammar (i.e. he doesn't mean that he'd like to go on and on about split infinitives and stuff) by saying that we shouldn't be scared of grammar since we all know it all implicitly. A good grammar course, he says, mainly just tells you what the names are for things you already know about. The two bits of specific linguistic advice he gives are:

a) kill all adverbs

and

b) never use the passive voice

You just can't argue with that, can you?

B-)