Customer Reviews

No Experience Necessary Writer's Course

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book goes a long way to smash the myths around "being a writer." The author argues convincingly that published writers are not necessarily the best writers, and that just because you aren't published doesn't mean you're not a writer. He makes a distinction: writing is about words, publishing is about money. He then goes on to talk about the multifarious ways you can become a writer, overcome writer's guilt complex, writer's block, writers self-consciousness, the "I have to write the next important novel" syndrome and many others. In short, he excuses the art vs. entertainment squabble as rubbish for someone who just wants to write (one of my favorite sections is entitled "A Few Unkind but Well-Deserved Words about Literature"). He makes you feel as though you can cut through all of that garbage and actually produce something. Whether it's published or not is beyond the point (but he does talk briefly about selling your work if you want to).

If you want to write something and are just plain confused about the entire monolithic subject, this is a good book to sit down and fly through in one sitting and then dip back into later when you need it. It is anything but pretentious and it will help you to write what you want to write.

This is the very first "How to write" book I ever read. I found it in a bookstore in the early 90s and bought it on a whim. It's marvelous. It smashed through all the "But what if I suck?" and "I can't call myself a real writer if no one has ever seen my work!" stuff in my head. I spent a summer doing the exercises and mulling over the advice, then headed back to college and changed my major from history to English. When asked for my chosen concentration, I said, "creative writing," with no hesitance or fear. This is a basic book that doesn't go into any major depths - you will need more specific books about creative nonfiction, poetry, or fiction for that - but it will get you to see yourself as capable of mastering the craft.

I love, love, love this book. The information is helpful and each exercise has been fun to do. Hope it helps me with my writing dreams.

I'm satisfied with "The No-Experience-Necessary Writer's Course" book. It was very thorough and explained quite a lot on how get started in writing anything. The exercises throughout and at the back of the book are very interesting, yet quite challenging.

It has to be challenging enough in order to get one's imagination flowing and keep on going, going, going. Besides, it's great fun to write; especially fiction for me.

I would recommend this book to anybody who has always wanted to learn to write.

Scott Edelstein provides a great service to writers, especially novice or struggling authors, with the myriad adv ice he lays out in "The No-Experience-Necessary Writer's Course." Essentially, he demystifies the process and practice of writing; offers common-sense advice and approaches to overcoming issues that stall, derail, and undermine writers (e.g., what to do about that self-critical voice in your own head); and provides a number of short exercises to jump start the writing and creative process.

Some of his explanations and vocabulary lessons will be new to novices but well-known to writers who may be switching from say, technical to creative writing, so this is not a book that one has to read cover-to-cover to gain benefit.

Mr. Edelstein takes great pains to be understandable but sometime sacrifices precision for a more casual tone and also falls into traps such as using and/or, which, for example, forces the reader to do the writer's job of figuring out what is meant.

The biggest problem with this book, and it is a real problem, is that the advice about publishing and communicating with publishers is quite dated, as in before Internet, email, and widespread use of PCs, and all the associated ripple effects that technology has had on writing. This book--my recently purchased copy is a 1993 edition--needs to be updated to remain relevant.

A second issue is that the layout of the book is just butt-ugly: pages or unrelenting text, oversized, bloated bullets for lists, no chapter headers or footers for navigation, and dated fonts.

Read it for the advice on writing but look elsewhere for information on publishing your work.

I waited sleeplessly for this treasured gem to arrive. Not even the 1980s 'intro to German language' class on the local public broadcast and a nonstop swill of temperanillo could soothe my nerves. But alas, it is now firmly entrenched in my steel grip. Til death do us part? Hah! Posh! They are going to have to bury me with this bad boy.

Thanks for the juice,
Rock-on!
Sweet Cheese