Customer Reviews

Now Write!: Fiction Writing Exercises from Today's Best Writers and Teachers

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sherry Ellis (ed.), Now Write!: Fiction Exercises from Today's Best Teachers and Writers (Tarcher, 2006)

Exactly what it says it is: a compendium of writing exercises from various folks. Ellis herself is entirely transparent aside from a brief introduction; from there, it's the writers and nothing but.

Needless to say, in a book like this, especially with so many different contributors (there are eighty-two different sections), you're bound to have some inconsistency. As well, it sometimes seems as if there's just too much of a good thing; we go right from one exercise into the next, with only the barest separation into chapters designed to highlight different emphases in the exercises. I think most people will find a handful, or maybe a dozen, exercises they like and continually come back to those, rather than utilizing everything in the book. ***

If you've ever struggled with different aspects of the writing craft, wondered how published authors have mstered the craft, been interested in going to writing workshops but lack the time or resources to attend, Ms. Ellis has made available a plethora of various writing exercises from published wirters that she has come to know through her own expereince at workshops and other contacts. Whether you are just strting to develop your writing voice or have been working at it for awhile this book will help you polish your skills, add new skills, provoke idease and stir the creative pot. A great teaching and learning book that guides you on the writing journey.

Now Write! Fiction Writing Exercises from Today's Best Writers and Teachers lives up to its title. Some of the exercises were more attractive to me, especially Venise Berry's "Learning to Layer" which I presented to my English 101 classes. Different lessons will appeal to different writers, and what I am enthusiastic about today will change. This book is not one to sit and read through, but rather one to work your way through the exercises that sound as if they could help you with whatever problem is current.

One problem that I had was that I got so engrossed that I was reading instead of writing. The exercises are all short, mostly three or four pages long. I plan to make better use of the book.

The short biographies were interesting, especially the magazines that the writers had been published in.

The book would be good for a class text or just for an individual looking to jump-start his or her writing. There are 85 exercises arranged in the usual categories plus one section on craft and another on revision

Writing is both an art and a science.

The art comes from the invention you have to make of creating a character, a situation, a story that exists only in your own mind and getting that vision onto paper. It's this art, this ability to see a Mona Lisa on a piece of canvas, a David in a block of marble, a novel in a pile of paper that sets the writer aside from the rest of us. This is extremely difficult to teach.

The science of writing is a series of hints, tips, rules, procedures or whatever you choose to call them that have been developed over the years to enable the writer to produce work of the best quality he can. The science of writing is what this book is all about.

The author has worked with eighty-seven writers who have developed techniques to help them with their own writing. They are written in the form of exercises for the reader to do to help him find the ones that will help him write.

Now Write! is an amazing compilation of exercises for the writer just getting started, or the advanced writing student who needs help in a slump or with a specific problem of craft. Organized into sections that allow you to focus on problem areas, Ms. Ellis's book brings together exercises by many of the best writers of our era (e.g. Edgerton, Abani, Livesey, Vreeland, and others). Kaplan's exercise on "smushing seed ideas together" in Now Write! has profoundly changed the way I think about writing and the quality of the material that I generate.

This book woke up our writing group. We are using the exercises to expand our writing skills and have fun doing it. What a great selection of authors and styles. Great for workshops or just to stimulate your writing on any given day.

Edited by personal writing coach Sherry Ellis, Now Write!: Fiction Writing Exercises from Today's Best Writers and Teachers is a carefully selected collection of writing exercises from some of today's most acclaimed fiction writers such as Steve Almond, Jayne Anne Phillips, Virgil Suarez, and more. From activities just to get motivated practicing writing, to ones focusing on point of view, character development, dialogue, plot and pacing, setting and description, revisions, and more, Now Write! focuses on ideas to get aspiring and practicing writers' creative juices flowing, or engage in activities such as learning to identify the distinctions between real dialogue and smooth, fictional dialogue. Prefacing each idea is a couple pages of solid advice and concepts to keep in mind when crafting the next potential masterpiece. A highly recommended, practical guide for any aspiring writer seeking to take independent study to the next level.

I bought this book both as a resource for myself and as a resource for a class I have been teaching in Creative Writing. There are often only so many exercises one can think of for themselves in order to get the juices flowing, but I found that a good portion of this book is helpful. Some of the exercises are geared solely towards older people, i.e. ages 18+. The class I teach is geared for children and thus some of the exercises are just beyond- the exercises that require you to recall a memory, a 10 year old doesn't have too many stored up yet. It's a good book, and I would definitely recommend purchasing it, however think about the age requirements you have before doing so.

I walked away with two very good ideas. There seems to be a deluge of this type of book right now. Tips and hints from a multitude of people that may, or may not, work for you. I'm waiting for the one that points out, on every page, that while you're reading it you aren't actually writing.