Customer Reviews

Beyond the Writers' Workshop: New Ways to Write Creative Nonfiction

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It is frustrating for such a necessary, provocative, and compelling book to also be badly organized and often clumsily written. Carol Bly has some truly powerful ideas about how to write and teach writing, as well as why. Indeed, she is the most forceful voice for morality in writing since John Gardner, and many of her ideas should be taken seriously, debated in the pages of literary journals, the classrooms of universities and writing workshops, the hallways of teachers' conventions. But the reader can also regret that Bly did not take the time to organize her thoughts into a more coherent form, or to express them with more care and elegance. It is sad that such a valuable book about writing is itself so often badly written.

Few books for writers, though, are as full of useful advice and provocative philosophy. Despite the subtitle, this book isn't simply for writers of creative nonfiction -- it is for anyone who wants to put words on paper in any genre whatsoever, because the questions Bly probes are universal ones. Few of her chapters address creative nonfiction specifically in a way that excludes other genres, and the exercises she provides at the end of the book are useful for any sort of writer, at any skill level.

Perhaps the most valuable audience for this book is teachers of writing, whether they are elementary school teachers or instructors in MFA programs. There are specific chapters for all levels of teachers, but the most useful discussions take place outside those chapters -- discussions of the ethics of writing and teaching writing, as well as the processes.

Bly links writing to ideas from neuropsychologists, social workers, philosophers, and moral psychologists such as Lawrence Kohlberg to broaden the context of writing beyond that of the American "junk culture". While at times this viewpoint leads her toward self-contradiction or a reductive orneriness, on the whole she makes a convincing argument for passionate, committed writing which doesn't slink away from questions of morality and metaphysics.

This book is a great reference guide for those of us considering an MFA, writing degree, or career. I would not recommend this book be read from front to back, rather, utilize it as a refernce manual and/or topical approach. Bly gives the reader some thought provoking material. I enjoyed her dialogue on writing classes geared for the rich and poor. I've encountered situations where my writing was personally stilted due to commentary by the instructor. She answered some of these concerns which would be important for an instructor as well as student to understand. Mostly, I was inspired to write after reading it and have a better understanding of what I need to out of my writing. One of the better "workshopping" type books of its genre.

I loved Bly's 'take no prisoners' style of dealing with writing teachers, and writing programs, their strengths and their shortcomings. Her insights about how some aspiring writers can be harmed or have their work stymied in its fragile state by workshops and comments by well-meaning students or teachers, is reassuring. However, I wish she had gone further, for instance, in her chapter addressing the process of first, second, etc. drafts of a manuscript. Her comments about the need to protect the work, and to give it time to develop through multiple drafts is valuable, but I believe it could have been fleshed out further.

I kind of fell over this book in Barnes and Noble one day and bought it despite its antiseptic and uninspiring title! I loved it. Reading it, I felt I was in the company of this insightful, challenging teacher, and, as a writer and a person, I felt greatly nourished by this book. She does what so few classes can: she transmits values. I'm so grateful I found it.

While I enjoyed the way Bly writes in this book on creative non-fiction, I didn't find it to be of much help. She constantly points out the "dumbing down" of American society and the lack of care taken when teaching creative writing. Her rants belittle the reader, acting as if the reader doesn't know the horrors in education or in America. I agree with her on both points, but I feel as though she never gives a solution. While it did spark a little inspiration in me, it wasn't a good read. I suppose if that was her point in writing this book, then she succeeded, but it was dull and lacked innovation.

This is a terrific book. Don't be fooled by the title. The book has useful and interesting things to say to anyone who writes or teaches writing or wants to do those things.

My feeling after reading this book was that if I'd had a teacher like Carol Bly it would have changed my life. Not just my writing--that, too--but my life. It's worth reading this book to be in the company of a stringent thinker and ethicist.

True story: The first thing that my eye caught on in this book was on page 4 where she said that Americans had "dumbed down," but the exception was a few thousand English majors and writing students. How wonderful that the author falls into that group. Flipping ahead I stopped on page 22 and read "There are so many things I despise about the Roman Catholic Church--its on-going authoritarianism and its history of torturing people--that it is hard for me to be fair." I am not Catholic myself, but I cannot help think this book is a most unusual and creative forum for that particular breed of writing.

It is a rare writer who in two or three sentences can tell me EVERYTHING I want to know from her. Ms. Carol Bly is one such rare writer.