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225th out of 319 books
—
505 voters
Writing Life Stories
by
Bill Roorbach (Goodreads Author)
Much more than teaching the rudiments of autobiography, this book will help writers see their own lives more clearly, while learning that real stories are often the best ones.
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
September 30th 2000
by Writer's Digest Books
(first published June 17th 1998)
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This is a great classic book for anyone who wants to improve their creative writing, memoirs, and essays. The book is organized around a series of exercises designed to make readers more aware of drama, action, word choice, voice, big ideas, audience, metaphor, and meaning, etc. Each chapter is illustrated with examples from the author's personal writing, reading, and teaching. Topics such as exaggeration, summary, quotations and dialogue are included. One of the author's early articles is repro...more
My sisters gave me this book after picking it up in a used book sale. They knew I liked this type of how-to book. I expected little; figured it was a cast away. Was I surprised. This author doles out a classical course in writing. If I ever get around to doing any serious writing (another lifetime?) I will definitely refer back to this book.
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I read all but chapter seven (because 7 wasn't required reading). The book has awesome tips and exercises for becoming a better writer but unless you take it seriously, I doubt it will improve your writing all that much. Nevertheless, I recommend it for people who want to improve their writing for professional or personal reasons. :)
This is a book I am using for my English writing class. It is one of the best books on writing that I have read. I highly recommend it.
There is a ton of information packed into this book. A ton. It is geared toward nonfiction writers, but even so a fiction writer can bring away a new way of looking at their writing. It did take me quite awhile to get through all the material, mostly because it would make me think about the way I write and I would stop and have to think about what I just read and often make notes.
I'm sure I would have taken a much longer time if I had sat down and followed through with all of the exercises inclu...more
I'm sure I would have taken a much longer time if I had sat down and followed through with all of the exercises inclu...more
Excellent book on accessing memories and writing a memoir in a vivid and interesting way. If you interested in any form of writing I would recommend this book.
This book is one of the group that helped me write my book. I found it to be an excellent "class-in-a-book" for those who want to write a personal essay but are not sure how to get started.
When I think of this book, Roorback's advice that first comes to mind is squeezing out all the meaning from each word, sentence, and paragraph. I also heard him saying, as I was going through my editing, "Does this move the story forward."
I'm not sure what grade he would give my book but I found this teacher t...more
When I think of this book, Roorback's advice that first comes to mind is squeezing out all the meaning from each word, sentence, and paragraph. I also heard him saying, as I was going through my editing, "Does this move the story forward."
I'm not sure what grade he would give my book but I found this teacher t...more
Roorbach has a real down to earth approach to teaching about memoir writing.
This was a friendly and helpful way to start thinking about writing memoirs. Terrific exercises.
I've been writing my memoirs, but I didn't find any great suggestions from this book. It's more of a discussion of his college writing class.
Another "how to" book for writing nonfiction, but better than most.
Lots of wonderful ideas if I ever decide to write a memoir.
An excellent and entertaining guide for writing aimed most specifically at memoir, although what it covers can be applied to forming any sort of story. Each chapter covers a different topic: how to start, forming characters, using metaphor, etc. It includes a number of writing exercises for use in attempting what is explained in each chapter.
The author himself wasn't all that impressive as a writer, but his advice is encouraging, the exercises are helpful, and the samples he gives from other writers are, themselves, impressive.
loved this book. for someone terrified of writing (I avoided all essays and literature classes like the plague)this was a wonderful confidence builder. great ideas, great exercises, funny, helpful. I am glad I own it.
I'm reading this book in preparation for a class I'm teaching this fall. It's a great guide to memoir writing. Breaks down writing technique into applicable, useful lessons. Writing exercises are useful and productive.
There are so many books about writing out there. I just happened to pick this up at the library, and I'm getting a lot out of it. It's the right book at the right time for me.
I can't say I've ever been this excited to do homework! The exercises seem a bit silly at times, but have been absolutely worth it. I'm glad I picked it up.
Old but surprisingly useful, with lots of lovely examples.
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Bill Roorbach's newest book is LIFE AMONG GIANTS, just published by Algonquin Books. Bill is the author of a number of books of fiction and nonfiction, including the Flannery O'Connor Award and O. Henry Prize winner BIG BEND, the romantic memoir SUMMERS WITH JULIET, the novel THE SMALLEST COLOR, the essay collection INTO WOODS, and most recently, Maine Prize nonfiction winner TEMPLE STREAM: A Rura...more
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