I have never been a fan of prompts, but this book has changed my mind. The Exercises are far more than prompts. They each tackle a particular writing challenge, and there are several exercises for each challenge. For example there are 13 exercises dealing with point of view, 10 on conversation, 9 on time, 5 on internal structure etc. In addition to giving you practice dealing with a particular challenge, the constraints imposed in each exercise focus your attention on one particular issue, while your creativity runs rampant under the radar. i have produced some of my most surprising writing working with this book. Highly recommended.
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hitesh
The exercises are gems
Reviewed in India on October 27, 2022
hitesh
Reviewed in India on October 27, 2022
After receiving it, I found the back cover in bad shape. The packaging was not decent. Still, I kept it. This seemed like a very important book for writers. And I was correct.
The exercises are gems. I like the second one on page 21 so much at the end of which Brian teaches a great tool for writing.
The exercises were short -- one to two pages long. I took it one day at a time. Otherwise, it would have been overwhelming. Plus, learning for me happens slowly and over time. It made sense to learn a lesson and let the subconscious work on it at least for a day.
After writing six exercises, I found them helpful. Each exercise taught me a thing or two about the craft. I knew what I was going to do in the next 200 days. Finish all the exercises one day at a time.
This book gives the feeling of a classroom experience. Classwork is the exercise and perhaps the learning from the exercise is the homework which over time builds like a tall-storeyed office building with different employees for different roles for a project.
I skipped exercises 8 and 9 as I didn't feel like doing them. I was about to skip no. 10 as well. But after two days of going through it, I thought of a novel I was working on and wrote the Epilogue for it. The number 10 exercise helped me finish the ending of my novel way before I reached the end. It felt wonderful. Oh! I loved these exercises. I loved to do homework during my school days. These exercises reminded me of my childhood memories. No wonder I became comfortable with them.
After writing the initial 7 exercises, I stopped writing. I kept reading them each day like I used to but I didn't work on the instructions. Just didn't feel like it. It gave me food for thought about my writing, the projects I was working on. The insight into different ways of seeing things in life showed me a wider spectrum on which I can work on my fictional tales. Oh this and oh that...so many things are possible and these exercises opened my eyes to a world of immense possibilities.
While reading the exercises, I couldn't help thinking about the three novels I was working on. In one of the exercises, I even wrote an epilogue for one of my novels. This book is a treasure that I have cherished and I will reread it next year. And hope to write more this time.
This book reminded me how difficult writing is. Hard work!
I keep taking breaks from writing. I see no point in pressuring myself to make progress on paper in a project each day. I know that real writing happens in the subconscious. And I keep feeding the loop which eventually gives output in terms of words on paper.
5/5
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