The "tools" referred to in the title are, in fact, strategies, as promised in the subtitle: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer. In all, Clark describes and analyses fifty five of them, and they are categorised as "Nuts and bolts", "Special effects", "Blueprints", "Useful habits" and "Bonus tools".

For example, one of the nuts and bolts strategies is to place important words at the start or end of a sentence. Apart from enabling the writer to hide weaker (aka less important) detail in the middle of the sentence, this approach also makes the story more dynamic.
Under the heading "Special effects" lies a strategy entitled "Play with words, even in serious stories." The subheading of that chapter says it all: "Choose words the average writer avoids, but the average reader understands".

One of the "blueprints" is this: "Build your work around a key question", which is expounded by: "Stories need an engine, a question that the action answers for the reader". This advice applies as much to nonfiction work as it fictional counterpart.

This is the sort of book that you can read from start to finish, dip into at random, or use for reference.

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