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4.0 out of 5 stars
A Bracing Dose of Reality for Writers, January 4, 2009
This review is from: Truth About Writing (Print on Demand (Paperback))
Published by British novelist-scriptwriter Michael Allen, The Truth About Writing: An Essential Handbook for Novelists, Playwrights and Screenwriters is a sobering look at writing as a career or primary sideline.
In his introduction, Allen declares:
Writing a book or play is mighty difficult, and it can seriously damage your health - not to mention your relationships, your bank account, and your career prospects.
Allen, however, recognizes that writers write because something inside demands it. So he charts a path forward, not a rosy one particularly, but one that is perhaps more valuable because of its reality. He breaks his roadmap into these following chapters:
1. What do writers want?
2. Are they likely to get it?
3. How to decide what you want and how to go about getting it
4. How the publishing industry works or not, as the case may be
5. The role of emotion in writing
6. How to find the energy for writing
7. How to find the time to write
8. How to sell your work in the digital world
9. The secret of success
As these chapters indicate, this book is a down-to-earth account of strategies to help you grind out the next great novel or screenplay. Written back in 2003, the advice is still right on target.
I recommend it: it gives writers a lot to think about.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The truth makes publishing insiders uncomfortable!, November 25, 2011
I ran across this book in my search for writing advice after a very long hiatus. The one negative reviewer gave this book one star and implored the reader to not even spend $2.99 on it for the Kindle version. In fact, probably the only reason you have to spend anything at all on it is BECAUSE you may want the Kindle version! Snark Snark, the negative reviewer, characterizes the free PDF download of this title as an apparent mistake on the author's part, a fluke, an oversight. In fact, author Michael Allen makes it clear in his introduction to this book that he was deliberately making it available as a free PDF download (and at a current Print On Demand cost of $211.01 USD, who can fault him). What this told me was that Snark Snark either did not bother to read the book thoroughly, or he felt himself (herself?) the target of Allen's rightful criticism of the publishing industry. I read the rest of Snark Snark's reviews and cannot help but think that his/her identity is that of an editor somewhere, maybe someone in senior status, with enough leisure time to review books on the Amazon site, as most entry-level editors/readers are usually slogged with work and don't have time to go around knocking the work and reputation of a self-made writer, editor and publisher, all of which Allen has been. This book is of TREMENDOUS value to the budding writer. It offers cold hard statistics on the likelihood of getting published, the pitfalls in the submissions process, and the shortcomings in personal traits (like skill and attitude) that often hamper the writer. Far from being narcissistic (I have no idea how Snark Snark justifies that description), Allen offers a path for the writer to engage in some sobering self-analysis, lest his/her delusions take them into the wild woods of job loss, divorce and bankruptcy. The chapters on diet and exercise for the writer are quite appropriate -- anyone who criticizes that has never gone through the cycle of staring at a blank page and feeling the drop of energy and fatigue. Anyone who criticizes health advice for writers has never been a writer, in sum. Allen's work also cites an excellent monograph, that of Thomas Uzzell's long out-of-print oldie but goodie, "Narrative Technique." Uzzell was a writing teacher whose technique was emulated, among others, by A. E. Van Vogt, one of the most prolific and widely read writers of his day, the oft-termed Golden Age of Science Fiction. Hard to criticize writing advice with that kind of pedigree, but Snark Snark tries to encourage you to dismiss it outright. What Allen was trying to get across to the budding writer (and which either went completely over Snark Snark's head or was deliberately ignored) is that writing is not for the delusional, the easily discouraged, or the faint of heart. It is hard, relentless work that must be honed if it's to be done right, and only a true dedication to the craft makes the writers true to themselves. Allen is to be commended for his service to the gaggle of up-and-coming writers, the gifted, the inspired, the half-mad and the truly baked all. This book should be required reading for any creative writing class. PS Snark Snark, please don't criticize Allen's use of the word "sesquipedalian" as too fancy and implying arrogance by countering it with your use of the word "codswallop" which is not fancy but altogether defines arrogance.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
I wish to give negative stars, May 26, 2011
Normally I wouldn't dignify such codswallop with a response of any kind. But someone has left this swill a positive review, and I would hate to see any curious or struggling writer suckered out of 2.99 in order to be condescended to by a bitter, clueless narcissist. So here I am. (With apologies to any book I have left a one-star review for previously. You do not deserve to be lumped in with this guy, but the system is unequipped for the depth of my ire.)
Gosh, what can one say about the Michael Allen's "essays" on writing? I admit to only reading two -- this, and "On the Survival of Rats in the Slush Pile" -- and only because they are available as free PDFs. (Still are, if you must take a peek. A Google search reveals that while the website for Kingsfield Publications, owned and operated by Michael Allen, is a ghost, whoever is in charge of site maintenance didn't know how to take the essays offline before putting them for sale on Amazon.) This guy is ridiculous. According to him anyone who wants to be a writer is in it for the fame (hah!), fortune (HAH!), and adoring throngs of bed partners (!!!). And while it's understandable he'd want to discourage such notions, he does it not so much along the lines of 'suffer for your art but get a day job for your bills,' but more 'that's how it SHOULD be, and WOULD be, were it not for the incompetence of editors, the money-grubbing agents, and audiences who are little more than glorified opium-eaters.'
I mean. Seriously. What?
Allen tackles a variety of topics in these essays, ultimately aimed at underscoring the futility of a writing career. He tries to support his long-winded reasoning with "science" (Please note the scare quotes. Please, please.) in an apparent attempt to lend his personal feelings and experiences the objectivity of logical thought. What's embarrassing is how badly he mucks it up, presenting extremely basic concepts with the flourish of bringing wisdom to the unwashed masses. He stresses the importance of, say, quantifying the value of your intended result -- something any experimental thinker learns once they've eclipsed the seventh-grade science fair. I suppose Allen has the right to say what he feels about writing, as a career he once practiced, but he should leave scientific thought alone.
In fact, "The Truth" feels distinctly middle-grade in ambition. Even when Allen produces salient points, they're often things which, really, should be obvious to anyone with more than a passing interest in writing. For instance: did you know it's the artist's job to INSPIRE emotion, rather than just express it? Allen also implores the reader not fall into the "trap of thinking that anything which you have written is automatically wonderful, just because you wrote it." He then devotes roughly thirty pages to the concepts of eating right, drinking enough water, getting exercise and avoiding RSI. I mean, yes, these are concerns people should have -- and not just writers -- but how low can the bar be set?
When he's not paddling in the kiddy pool, Allen is busy constructing a perception of the publishing business which is outright harmful to writers. Allen claims that writers don't get the respect they deserve as the lifeblood of the business, that editors are in it for the free lunches, and that the slush pile is a joke. Drawing from an extremely limited data pool (again with the shoddy science), he "proves" that industry professionals are incapable of recognizing talent or a potential bestseller, and that any success in this business is based on circumstance and circumstance alone. While there might be (tiny, tiny) grains of truth to what he says, any unagented writer who adopts these attitudes will soon find doors closed to them: doors of hard-working people who love their jobs even as they acknowledge the flaws of the system. The publishing business is just that -- a business -- and the blogs of the many agents and editors (and even published writers!) out there unashamed to reveal its workings will be exponentially more helpful than anything Allen contributes.
Finally -- and yes, this feels mean, but it must be said -- Allen is simply not that good a writer. His essays are a real slog due to a lack of structure and coherence; he doesn't seem as interested in proving his point as he is in displaying his talent for rhetoric. Which in itself is questionable -- Allen boasts of being a plain speaker, but in the next paragraph inserts "sesquipedalian," seemingly without irony. And anyone who uses "it therefore follows, as dogs follow a bitch in season" when making an academic argument has a considerable problem with tone. It may feel like nitpicking, but I'm trying to accurately reproduce why "The Truth" feels like the aimless ramblings of amateur hour. It's also interesting to note that Allen enjoys creating fictional characters to embody of his idea of reality and that, nine times out of ten, the targets of his mockery and disgust are conceptualized as women -- from snooty editors to weepy office workers to gullible readers. It gives the whole things a greasy patina of misogyny, which does nothing to improve the overall impact. (I mean, nothing like the phrase "all work and no play makes Jill a hard-nosed, unattractive bitch" to brighten MY day.)
Don't listen to this person. Don't give him money. There are other, more savvy people out there generously dispensing their insight for FREE. Don't waste your time on advice re: "success" from a someone who confesses they haven't sold a piece of writing in decades.
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