Mooring Against the Tide: Writing Fiction and Poetry

by Jeff Knorr, Tim Schell

For beginning and intermediate creative writing courses (General/Fiction/Poetry) that use a workshop approach. This workshop-based textbook offers a hands-on, interactive approach to writing fiction and poetry. Presenting the fundamental elements of both genres, the text illustrates the creative writing process and guides the students through several drafts of various student sample writings as if they were participating in an actual workshop. Clearly written and organized, it also includes student samples, class-tested exercises, and an easy-to-use guide to the workshop process.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Reference

410 pages, Paperback

First published July 7, 2000

Reviews

[Giles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am reading this for my Creative Writing class. I really like it because it's down to earth, upbeat, and has very strong but simple instructions on how to improve my writing.

Overall, this is a good book, but you can get the same instruction for less than half the price. It's a textbook, but the exact same lessons have been printed in how-to writing books for years.

[Alan Gerstle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have taught creative writing on the college level, and this is the only book that I have found can contribute to helping students understand what 'creative writing' is and actually helps them with their own writing. Without elaborating too much on why I think this is a good book, I would say that it combines excellent examples of fiction and poetry that are accessible and at the same time worthy of their genre. There is an absence of lingo and didactic admonishments, and most of all I get the feeling the authors truly enjoy their subject matter and are both writers and committed teachers.

[Chi · Rating 3 out of 5]

quite a good start for any beginner to creative writing. Yet the structure of some poems should have been edited more carefully. Some of them were not even separated in stanzas. Overall, it presented steps by steps of writing poems and short stories plus provided some good thought-provoking works from amateurish to professional writers.

[Josie Muehlhausen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal! I have read Jeff Knorr's Room Service, which was well written. Tim Schell is my mentor/professor and my favorite at that! Well written by both men, easy to understand plenty of examples; it also contains great poems and short stories; A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings stands out the most.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What we talk about when we talk about love. Amazing. Dislike a lot of the poems, but that is okay.