Customer Reviews

Writing About Nature: A Creative Guide

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Now in a newly revised and expanded edition, Writing About Nature: A Creative Guide by John A. Murray deftly teaches aspiring nature writers diverse exercises and examples with which to hone the communication skills of anyone who has experienced nature and the outdoors and yearns to share what they have seen. Covering a broad range of genres, and conveying a wealth of tips, tricks, techniques, as well as surveying publication issues, and enhanced with a new chapter about nature writing and environmental activism, Writing About Nature is an original, superbly organized and presented resource. Writing About Nature is an excellent skill improvement guide which is a highly recommended addition to any nature writer's instructional reference shelf or reading list.

I have the original version of this book and I have carried it all over the country and used like a bible for the last ten years. I have gone back to each chapter at random and repeated his exercises time and time again without feeling like I was returning to the same book. Even if you are just journal writing like me this book is a must have and I will be ordering the new version when I am done writing this. I have only found one other book that works just as well in it's powerful simplicity and that is John E. Schwiebert's "Reading and Writing from Literature". Thanks Mr. Murray for the guidance.

Books on writing are usually ho-hum for me, as I am a writer with many publications and many years experience and have taught writing in various venues. But this one is far from ho-hum. Anecdotes about well-known nature writers, past and present, make the learning experience colorful and entertaining and are always directly relevant to what Murray is saying.

The trouble with having years of experience is that I tend to forget about some sound principles--I have the illusion I've incorporated them so thoroughly they have become automatic. Ha! Not so; this book reminds me of them, stirs me up, and has already helped me liven up a couple of works in progress.

Altho this book is focused on nature writing, most of the principles discussed apply to writing of any kind. Highly recommended for experienced as well as beginning writers.