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Creative Writing: A Workbook with Readings
Creative Writing is a complete writing course that will jump-start your writing and guide you through your first steps towards publication. Suitable for use by students, tutors, writers' groups or writers working alone, this book offers:
A practical and inspiring section on the creative process, showing you how to stimulate your creativity and use your memory and experience in inventive ways in-depth coverage of the most popular forms of writing, in extended sections on fiction, poetry and life writing, including biography and autobiography, giving you practice in all three forms so that you might discover and develop your particular strengths a sensible, up-to-date guide to going public, to help you to edit your work to a professional standard and to identify and approach suitable publishers a distinctive collection of exciting exercises, spread throughout the workbook to spark your imagination and increase your technical flexibility and control a substantial array of illuminating readings, bringing together extracts from contemporary and classic writings in order to demonstrate a range of techniques that you can use or adapt in your own work.
Creative Writing: A Workbook with Readings presents a unique opportunity to benefit from the advice and experience of a team of published authors who have also taught successful writing courses at a wide range of institutions, helping large numbers of new writers to develop their talents as well as their abilities to evaluate and polish their work to professional standards. These institutions include Lancaster University and the University of East Anglia, renowned as consistent producers of published writers.
A practical and inspiring section on the creative process, showing you how to stimulate your creativity and use your memory and experience in inventive ways in-depth coverage of the most popular forms of writing, in extended sections on fiction, poetry and life writing, including biography and autobiography, giving you practice in all three forms so that you might discover and develop your particular strengths a sensible, up-to-date guide to going public, to help you to edit your work to a professional standard and to identify and approach suitable publishers a distinctive collection of exciting exercises, spread throughout the workbook to spark your imagination and increase your technical flexibility and control a substantial array of illuminating readings, bringing together extracts from contemporary and classic writings in order to demonstrate a range of techniques that you can use or adapt in your own work.
Creative Writing: A Workbook with Readings presents a unique opportunity to benefit from the advice and experience of a team of published authors who have also taught successful writing courses at a wide range of institutions, helping large numbers of new writers to develop their talents as well as their abilities to evaluate and polish their work to professional standards. These institutions include Lancaster University and the University of East Anglia, renowned as consistent producers of published writers.
664 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2006
77 people are currently reading
337 people want to read
About the author
Jane Yeh
10 books8 followersJane Yeh is a poet and journalist. Her first collection of poems, Marabou (Carcanet, 2005), was shortlisted for the Whitbread, Forward, and Aldeburgh poetry prizes. Her next collection, The Ninjas, was published by Carcanet in 2012. She was a judge for the 2013 National Poetry Competition and was named a Next Generation poet by the Poetry Book Society in 2014. Her poems have appeared in The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday, The Nation (US), Poetry Review, and other journals, as well as in anthologies including The Best British Poetry 2012 and The Forward Book of Poetry 2013 and 2006.
Jane was educated at Harvard University and holds master’s degrees in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa and Manchester Metropolitan University. Before coming to the Open University, she was a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Kingston and Oxford Brookes universities, and was Co-Director of the MA in Creative Writing Programme at the latter. As a journalist, she writes on books, theatre, fashion, and sport for such publications as The Times Literary Supplement, Time Out, and The Village Voice (US).
Jane was educated at Harvard University and holds master’s degrees in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa and Manchester Metropolitan University. Before coming to the Open University, she was a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Kingston and Oxford Brookes universities, and was Co-Director of the MA in Creative Writing Programme at the latter. As a journalist, she writes on books, theatre, fashion, and sport for such publications as The Times Literary Supplement, Time Out, and The Village Voice (US).
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
April 18, 2017
Uni reading for the year done!
January 27, 2021
I hate this book. Its redeeming features are the latter sections that deal with editing and publishing.
I also learned a few things but the learning of those things was like getting blood out of a stone. This is because it goes around the houses, up to Mars, swings a left at the moon and then eventually makes a point. Is it so hard to just say do xyz it will make your writing better, xyz author uses it in this book, now you try. Instead it goes back and forth across the subject so you HAVE to read it a few times to gleam its actual meaning. Now I'm not being thick here, I've read a lot of text books. This is by far the most ridiculous. Ironic that it's written by actual creative writers 🤷♀️🤦♀️
It also contradicts itself. Don't use stock characters. You don't have time to develop every character so use stock characters.
As for the poetry section, save yourself some money and buy Stephen Frys book on poetry.
I have read Stephen Kings book on writing and Orson Scott Cards on science fiction and fantasy and I realised what you need to know is out there. Just read up. But not this book because there are others out there that are more entertaining with better structure.
I also learned a few things but the learning of those things was like getting blood out of a stone. This is because it goes around the houses, up to Mars, swings a left at the moon and then eventually makes a point. Is it so hard to just say do xyz it will make your writing better, xyz author uses it in this book, now you try. Instead it goes back and forth across the subject so you HAVE to read it a few times to gleam its actual meaning. Now I'm not being thick here, I've read a lot of text books. This is by far the most ridiculous. Ironic that it's written by actual creative writers 🤷♀️🤦♀️
It also contradicts itself. Don't use stock characters. You don't have time to develop every character so use stock characters.
As for the poetry section, save yourself some money and buy Stephen Frys book on poetry.
I have read Stephen Kings book on writing and Orson Scott Cards on science fiction and fantasy and I realised what you need to know is out there. Just read up. But not this book because there are others out there that are more entertaining with better structure.
June 26, 2018
Despite my tutor being in love with this creative writing manual, I didn't find it very helpful. Often I couldn't see the link between the techniques and the examples and there was so much left out. I feel I've been left with a vague idea of what creative writing is. Most of the exercises and techniques are useful, especially in the poetry section, but the book needs to be updated with the latest techniques about plot and self-publishing for example. Instead of one big brick of a book (very heavy to carry around), I would split it into slimmer and more focused booklets, just a thought.
November 12, 2016
An excellent overview for creative writing classes.
June 29, 2018
I read this book as part of my Open University Creative Writing course, which officially finished at the end of May, but I have been taking some time to re-read some sections since then.
The book starts from the premise that the reader is completely new to creative writing and covers everything such as techniques to generate ideas, creating characters, different genres and types of writing all the way through to what to do with your writing once you've created it. There is advice about editing as well as guidance about how to go about researching potential outlets, agents etc.
There are plenty of exercises as you go through the book and numerous accompanying readings to analyse and learn from. Overall, it's a very helpful book and I feel that I have improved as a writer for having read it. The section on proper use of certain punctuation also clarified a few things - not least the correct use of colons and semi-colons.
Equally, there are times when the discussions of readings seem to meander away from the question that was asked in the first place, leaving me wondering whether I had understood the task correctly.
But overall, it's a good coursebook and I shall hold on to it as one to refer back to in future.
The book starts from the premise that the reader is completely new to creative writing and covers everything such as techniques to generate ideas, creating characters, different genres and types of writing all the way through to what to do with your writing once you've created it. There is advice about editing as well as guidance about how to go about researching potential outlets, agents etc.
There are plenty of exercises as you go through the book and numerous accompanying readings to analyse and learn from. Overall, it's a very helpful book and I feel that I have improved as a writer for having read it. The section on proper use of certain punctuation also clarified a few things - not least the correct use of colons and semi-colons.
Equally, there are times when the discussions of readings seem to meander away from the question that was asked in the first place, leaving me wondering whether I had understood the task correctly.
But overall, it's a good coursebook and I shall hold on to it as one to refer back to in future.
April 2, 2020
This is a very informative book for the beginner and those with more experience. Its not essential to be doing the OU degree module to benefit from this tome, the exercises and info are accessible to all and are independent of the course assignments.
The poetry section I found to be a little less helpful. The author of those chapters didn't seem to write in such a clear and informative way, not to say those chapters were not good, I just felt the others were better.
Overall, I'd highly recommend the book to anyone interested in creative writing unless they've been writing professionally for a few years or so.
The poetry section I found to be a little less helpful. The author of those chapters didn't seem to write in such a clear and informative way, not to say those chapters were not good, I just felt the others were better.
Overall, I'd highly recommend the book to anyone interested in creative writing unless they've been writing professionally for a few years or so.
September 12, 2017
This book helped to reignite my creativity, although I didn't do all the activities. However, I think they would be useful at getting your words flowing and at exercising different techniques, voices, styles etc
There's so much content, I think referring to it at different stages of your writing would be the most beneficial way of using this book. Also, I think this would benefit anyone struggling to be creative or looking to begin their next project!
There's so much content, I think referring to it at different stages of your writing would be the most beneficial way of using this book. Also, I think this would benefit anyone struggling to be creative or looking to begin their next project!
April 1, 2022
I think it's a great book but there isn't much coverage of poetry or specifically for short stories and is more about writing novels (but a lot of that applies to short pieces). It does cover Life Writing and Travel Writing. Nothing about drama.
It took 6 months to read it because I did most of the exercises. It's a big fat book.
It took 6 months to read it because I did most of the exercises. It's a big fat book.
August 28, 2017
An Open University Course Book for the beginner. It is a very helpful book for any writer and gives good examples of prose, poetry and life writing to show how techniques are used.
April 23, 2018
needs a revision, at times horribly dated.
Otherwise it's been an interesting year!
Otherwise it's been an interesting year!
Read
June 14, 2019tons of useful info for writers
July 23, 2019
Oy, academia sure takes the pleasure out of reading #Lolz
May 15, 2020
Got a bit florid in places but otherwise quite helpful
May 16, 2020
I read this for my graduate school class and can't remember much about it.
December 24, 2020
Read as part of a creative writing course. Interesting creative writing techniques with a lot of examples and exercises. Overall, I enjoyed this book.
May 27, 2022
Excellent guide. You will get what you put into it. There are lots of incremental exercises and sample texts (short stories or excerpts).
November 29, 2023
4.5 brilliant workbook with good overall coverage.
February 10, 2017
It's a biggie, of course it's a text book for a course. But still an enormous resource for any budding writer. It covers idea generation, fiction, biography and life writing, poetry, and editing. A bit dry at points, I especially struggled through some of the life writing section, but that's because I had to read it cover to cover. If you're not using it for a course, you can just dip into the sections you're interested in. Another great aspect is the huge selected readings section, as big as the 'teaching' section itself, which supports a lot of the lessons.
A lot of recommendations for aspiring writers include things like Stephen King or Hemingway's 'On Writing'. Sure, they're great, read them cover to cover. But this is a reference, with a wide spread of influence and authors. Handy in the collection of any writer I'd say.
A lot of recommendations for aspiring writers include things like Stephen King or Hemingway's 'On Writing'. Sure, they're great, read them cover to cover. But this is a reference, with a wide spread of influence and authors. Handy in the collection of any writer I'd say.
July 18, 2014
This weighty tome is standard reading in the top UK university Creative Writing Courses, the UEA and Manchester. It combines exercises with readings which are easy to begin with, but much more challenging as the book progresses. The text-book style is for class-room discussion and debate as well as the reading and writing exercises and that's the problem; if you are a university student, it's the best writing text book out there, but if you're studying at home alone, in some cases, it's a challenge too far.
April 22, 2012
This was part of the study materials for a writing course I was doing. Some parts were very helpful and informative - others; not so much.
It covers prose, poetry and life writing. There is also a hand-dandy section called Going Public with some good editing guidelines.
There is a sense of relief in finishing this as I have been studying from it since September, but also a bit of bewilderment as I surely can't know everything it had to teach me.
It covers prose, poetry and life writing. There is also a hand-dandy section called Going Public with some good editing guidelines.
There is a sense of relief in finishing this as I have been studying from it since September, but also a bit of bewilderment as I surely can't know everything it had to teach me.
June 22, 2013
This book is great from start to finish. The exercises are well planned out and make sure you are learning the material and understand it well. I have thoroughly enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to any creative writer even if you aren't taking the Open University Course that goes with it.
November 18, 2015
This was an interactive text book full of good exercise and the readings complimented the material well. I only wish my instructor would have used the book in a different way. I feel like I didn't get to experience the text holistically but in sanitized chunks. I am going to hold on to this text so I can read it as the writer intended when I have completed my degree.
June 5, 2014
A very hefty tome, and not called the Big Red Book for nothing. It is the course book for the Open University's Creative Writing Course (A215) and is packed full of advice, exercises, and readings to demonstrate the learning objectives.
August 14, 2013
Standard text for OU's A215 Creative Writing undergraduate course. Not the most entertaining text on the subject, and definitely not very portable. But it is comprehensive and reliable.
May 28, 2014
Degree finished, final course done and dusted. This set text was a great resource with lots of exercises to get the creative juices flowing.
June 2, 2014
So. Much. Work. I can see me coming back to this for exercises when I get stuck.
May 1, 2015
Used by my OU course, this BRB was a font of information. Very comprehensive with exercises to dip back into whenever I get stuck.
November 17, 2015
Read for my degree. Not as helpful as one might have thought, but still worth it.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews