Teasing out the history of a place celebrated for timelessness where the waters have cleaned the slate of countless paddle strokes requires a sure and attentive hand. Stephen Wilbers's account reaches back to the glaciers that first carved out the Boundary Waters and the pioneers who discovered them. He does so without losing the personal relationship built through a lifetime of pilgrimages (anchored by almost three decades of trips with his father). This story captures the untold broader narrative of the region as well as a thousand different details sure to be recognized by fellow pilgrims, like the grinding rhythm of a long portage or the loon call that slips into that last moment before sleep.

With refreshed content and brand-new exercises for readers to hone their skills, Keys to Great Writing Revised and Expanded Edition presents practical lessons for writers of both fiction and nonfiction to improve their writing. Lessons include: * eliminating wordiness and knowing how to stop and start (economy)* * using the right word every time and make an impression with your writing (precision)* * engaging your reader with action and movement (action)* * constructing sentences for musicality and voice (music)* * being playful and lively in your writing (personality)* * knowing what you want to say (purpose) * using point of view to best effect (point of view) * planning your writing, thinking in paragraphs, and creating outlines (organization) * using a combination of rhetorical appeals in persuasive writing (support) * avoiding unnecessary shifts in person, subject, voice, tense, etc. (coherence) * developing good writing habits, overcoming the challenges of long writing projects, and practicing sound time management (the writing process) *The bulk of new exercises will be focused in these chapters, with others appearing in subsequent chapters.