Review of Story Sprouts CBW – LA Writing Day – Exercises and Anthology 2013 Edited by Alana Garrigues
REVIEW BY DAVE GIOIA
If you’re an aspiring or experienced writer who needs help getting your creative juices flowing then Story Sprouts is just the book for you.
Produced by the Children’s Book Writers of Los Angeles, Story Sprouts is a “how to” book about writing that includes exercises and resources to generate ideas and flesh them out and organize them into either a poem or story with a character, conflict and beginning, middle and end.
Nineteen talented children’s book authors accepted the challenge to attend the one-day workshop and write, revise, polish and submit two stories — in public, under the pressure of a six-hour deadline — with the promise of publication.
As CBW-LA president and founder Nutschell Anne Windsor says in the book description at Amazon, “First time writers often dread writing query letters because they fear that they lack the credentials to make their author bios stand out. Our goal for the Workshop and Anthology was to give our members their first taste of publication, giving them the confidence to pursue their writing careers. For workshop participants who have yet to achieve their dreams of becoming a published author, Story Sprouts will be the first of their many achievements, and something that will inspire them to keep on reaching for their writing dreams.”
Producing good writing isn’t easy under any circumstances and I think all involved did a good job given the time restrictions. The book includes both poetry and prose written by the participants. My apologies to the poets and poetry-lovers among us but I’m more interested in prose than poetry, although I was delighted to find Robert Frost’s “Out, Out—“ included as an example of narrative poetry toward the end of the book. It’s my all-time favorite poem and never fails to leave me with a lump in my throat.
Among the prose there are some stand out pieces. I was taken by Nora Rodriguez’s reflection on what writing means to her in “On The Road To A Masterpiece” and by Lissa Ross’ reminiscence about her grandmother in “The Rains of North Queensland.” My favorites, though, are two charming stories about magic, Glenn Jason Hanna’s “For Want Of A Better Thing” and Alana Garrigues’ “Wishing Hair,” both of which are imaginative and entertaining examples of why you should be careful what you wish for.
So, if you’re not the type of writer who gets an idea and puts fingertips to keycaps and begins typing away then I highly recommend Story Sprouts to you. You’ll find the information about writing and the exercises and resources very helpful. Even if you have no problem generating ideas and getting them out I urge you to buy the book. CBW-LA is a group worth supporting.
You can find out more at: http://www.cbw-la.org/
Dave Gioia can be contacted via: http://davegioia.com
