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Be a Writer: Your Guide to the Writing Life

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Looking for a jumpstart in your writing career, young writers? This simply written, clearly organized guide gives practical strategies to remove writers' block and focus your writing endeavors. Whether you are writing your first great novel, a memoir, an essay or a book review, the helpful tips and tricks presented here will take the anxiety out of getting started.
Particularly useful are the sections at the beginning of each Chapter entitled 10 Things You Need to Know Even if You Don't Read This Chapter. The young writers in our house have devoured this guide and received valuable inspiration and coaching.

This is the first book from Leverage Factory, a small publishing company in Bend, OR. The book was written by Steve Peha a professional writer and writing teacher. For over 10 years Steve has been helping schools get better results through research-proven writing strategies. This book lays out those strategies in a clear, casual and engaging way - perfect for young adults interested in improving their writing skills.

This book is an excellent resource for writers at all levels. It reads a bit like a "Writing for Dummies" but even better. Fun and engaging. The tips, activities and examples are clearly identified and well-matched with chapter content. Each chapter begins with a list of things you need to know (if you decided not to read it) which gets the reader directly to the point.

It is recommended for 12 - 18 year-olds, but it is presented in such an engaging manner it could serve a much broader audience.

Ever wished you could hire an expert to "fire up" your reluctant writers and get them excited about writing? "Be a Writer: Your Guide to the Writing Life" is the next best thing -- it's a self-help book written for tweens and teens and the author, Steve Peha, is the kid-friendly writing coach we've wished for.

Activity suggestions are sprinkled throughout the chapters, but this is not a textbook in the typical sense... think of it more as a paperbacked motivational writing seminar. This book is a great choice for students who are reluctant writers by nature. It could also be good therapy for students who have lost their excitement for writing after years of prescriptive school assignments (such as book reports and 5 paragraph essays). If your student is already a prolific writer, take a look at the next book in the series -- "Be a Better Writer" by Steve Peha.

-- homeschooling parent and "waitress" at[...]

Between Mr. Peha and Miss Margot Carmichael Lester a young writer can find all the inspiration and help they need to get stated on their journey as writers and get the inspiration to so label themselves. They teach young writers that they are writers if they have something to say or have had experiences worth sharing or if they so desire and then lay out a cohesive way to recognize the things that make them writers, like realizing they have been writers their whole lives and have interesting things to say that people want to hear. Many little insets along the way give examples or show us what "Miss Margot" thinks or give us Tips but I found the lists of Ten Things You Need To Know at the beginning of each chapter the most helpful and a hearty and informative welcome to the wisdom in the following section.

Being professional writers, neither of the authors seems like they are teaching or lecturing but more like they are sharing valuable techniques for following your inspiration in a way that makes it easier to read, and isn't that the goal to writing? To be read? There are so many places to go wrong when writing and this pair seems to anticipate what traps a young, or novice, writer might fall into and then tries to help them from falling into them. This is shown in some of the the "Q and A's" throughout the book as they interview writers but the "Q and A" with an eighth grade write towards the end was the most poignant in making their point that writing can be a chosen path.

I would heartily recommend this book to anyone young or old or in between who is looking to improve their writing or who feels inspired to committ words to paper, or computer for that matter. We are all writers and Miss Carmichael Lester and Mr. Peha want to help us be the best writers we can be.

TEN THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW EVEN IF YOU DON'T READ THIS CHAPTER - This is how each of the eleven chapters of "Be a Writer" begins. This valuable book will help bridge the gap between wanting to be a writer and actually Being a Writer. And I doubt that it will stop there, as you'll find this a handy reference guide that you can return to time and time again.

"Be a Writer" just about covers it all, from writing an essay - drafting, revising, editing - all the way through to tackling the task of writing your first novel. I found the second part of chapter 2: "Pre-Writing to be Writing" a very sound way for anyone to tap into their creative reserves. This is a practice that I've been faithful to since the beginning of my writing career, and it has yet to fail me. Better yet, Pre-Writing has been the precursor to each of my eight novels. - Mel Mathews - Author of LeRoi, Menopause Man, SamSara...

Finally a decent book for young writers starting out. This book covers some of the more advanced techniques. Also don't forget to check out the second book in this collection. Containing even more of the great writing techniques featured in this book. This book will take your work to the next level. This book contains hundreds of tips and activities.[...].