The Lie That Tells A Truth - The Friday 56 and Book Beginnings on Friday

   When my husband and I lived in Miami, I attended the Miami International Book Fair every year, and more than once I heard John Dufresne speak. What a great teacher he is! I wish I could have taken his classes at Florida International University. But at least I have a copy (autographed) of his book on writing. 
   Not only do I enjoy Dufresne's laid-back writing style, I appreciate the exercises he includes. At the end of the book is a chapter dealing with grammar, usage, punctuation, and mechanics - the craft of writing. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to write.
Genre: Nonfiction / WritingBook Length: 298 PagesAmazon Link: The Lie That Tells A TruthAuthor Website: John Dufresne, Author
Book Beginning:

[There's an introduction, but I'm beginning with the first chapter]
Getting in Shape
     You wouldn't be here if you didn't want to write, so let's write. We'll chat later. Get out your pen and paper or fire up the computer. Pour yourself a coffee. Unplug the phone. Once you start, you can't stop. Give yourself a half hour. Relax. Don't think too much. You're starting a journey, and you don't know where you're going. But you do know you're going someplace you haven't been before. Take ten minutes for each exercise. Here we go.

The Friday 56 (from Page 56 in my hardback book):
Remember that our figures of speech, our metaphors, our way of looking at the world all come to some degree from our jobs. What a farmer thinks of the landscape may be different from what a miner thinks, a developer, a factory worker.

Synopsis (from Amazon):
     Finally, a truly creative―and hilarious―guide to creative writing, full of encouragement and sound advice. Provocative and reassuring, nurturing and wise, The Lie That Tells a Truth is essential to writers in general, fiction writers in particular, beginning writers, serious writers, and anyone facing a blank page.
     John Dufresne, teacher and the acclaimed author of Love Warps the Mind a Little and Deep in the Shade of Paradise, demystifies the writing process. Drawing upon the wisdom of literature's great craftsmen, Dufresne's lucid essays and diverse exercises initiate the reader into the tools, processes, and techniques of writing: inventing compelling characters, developing a voice, creating a sense of place, editing your own words. Where do great ideas come from? How do we recognize them? How can language capture them? In his signature comic voice, Dufresne answers these questions and more in chapters such as "Writing Around the Block," "Plottery," and "The Art of Abbreviation." Dufresne demystifies the writing process, showing that while the idea of writing may be overwhelming, the act of writing is simplicity itself.


Want more? Here's a TED talk by John Dufresne.

                


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