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Everything You Need to Know About Creative Writing:
Everything You Need to Know About Creative Writing is an accessible, lively and entertaining companion providing practical and informative guidance for anyone interested in developing their writing including members of writing groups, aspiring writers and students taking courses in creative writing. The ideal guide to creative writing, it offers:
- An essential, easy-to-use, reference covering all aspects of creative writing including the creative process; form and style; troubleshooting; workshopping; peer review; publishing etc.
- An informative, witty and stress-relieving companion for the struggling student, writer and tutor
- no-nonsense, practical advice and guidance
- Useful contents lists by topic provide alternative routes through the book to enable readers to follow up particular interests or problems
- Extensive cross-references to other entries and guides to further reading
- An essential, easy-to-use, reference covering all aspects of creative writing including the creative process; form and style; troubleshooting; workshopping; peer review; publishing etc.
- An informative, witty and stress-relieving companion for the struggling student, writer and tutor
- no-nonsense, practical advice and guidance
- Useful contents lists by topic provide alternative routes through the book to enable readers to follow up particular interests or problems
- Extensive cross-references to other entries and guides to further reading
- GenresNonfiction
208 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2007
15 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 18, 2011
This offering from the United Kingdom is a handy manual of terms in alphabetical order to aid and advise aspiring (or blocked) novelists, short story writers, playwrights and poets. Authors Heather and Leach and Robert Graham as well as five more contributors listed at the book’s beginning are all published fiction writers and professors of creative writing at various universities in England.
With some sections as short as a few sentences (caricature, lyrics, synopsis) to more extensive chapters several pages long (description, dialogue, plot, scriptwriting, story), these segments begin with abstracts, action, and adjective and continue up through workshops, writing practice and zeitgeist. An astonishing number of topics –more than 200 in all—offer succinct advice on various kinds of writing techniques, philosophies, and encouragement for all types of fiction writers, particularly those who are just beginning or who are lacking in self-confidence.
“There are many ways to use this book,” the authors state. “You can dip in and out; you can jump interactively from one entry to another using the many cross-references; you can follow one of the alternative routes to explore a specific topic in more detail; you can try out the writing ideas . . . “ (2).
The “alternative routes” listed at the end of the book suggest various topics on which one might be seeking aid, then list several sections in the book that might be most helpful. For example, under Poetry, the authors recommend the pages on alliteration and assonance, archaisms, ballad, epic, experimental poetry, fixed forms, haiku, lineation, metaphor, meter and rhythm, etc., If one prefers to focus on editing and revision, he/she could proceed through anachronism, clichés, clutter, drafts, editing, feedback, grammar, proofreading, punctuation, spellcheck, and so on.
Many of the sections contain short excerpts from other well-known writers’ prose and discuss how each is a good example of creating characters, conflict, description, dialogue, plot, point of view, and numerous other aspects of producing a short story or novel.
Three of the most useful sections for budding writers also are found early in the books—in the B’s—and deal with the basic notion of being a writer, the frustrating problems of beginning a creative project, and getting beyond writer’s block. In both the being a writer and block sections, the authors affirm that one must eschew the notion that writers are a pre-established and elite corps—“white people, geniuses, French absinthe drinkers” (19)—a falsehood and a sure recipe for blockage. “You may not feel much like a creative genius, you may not even feel like a writer, but you can just keep writing. This is what writers do: they sit down in front of the page, the screen, curious, afraid. Words appear one after another. They cross them out, they look at what they’ve written, they write more. Not being, but doing” (16).
A particularly interesting section entitled experimental writing discusses the use of stream of consciousness and metafiction approaches and notes that certain authors apply film techniques such a jump-cuts, freeze frames, and scratch methods to the narrative arts.
In the last section, zeitgeist (“spirit of the time”), the authors clarify their book’s parenthetical subtitle. Leach and Graham state, “But rational consciousness, knowing is not all that we need. Writers who are in touch with their time and who write with commitment and passion are part of the zeitgeist; one of the makers and shakers, not one of the followers” (190).
At the end of most of the sections is a short list of related readings and/or websites on the specific topic.
As a final testimonial to the practicality of this manual: During the course of reading this book, I sat down and cranked out an original short story. While I do not claim that it is a great creative work, Leach and Graham must concur that, for the moment, I have transcended writer’s block and conquered problems with beginnings.
With some sections as short as a few sentences (caricature, lyrics, synopsis) to more extensive chapters several pages long (description, dialogue, plot, scriptwriting, story), these segments begin with abstracts, action, and adjective and continue up through workshops, writing practice and zeitgeist. An astonishing number of topics –more than 200 in all—offer succinct advice on various kinds of writing techniques, philosophies, and encouragement for all types of fiction writers, particularly those who are just beginning or who are lacking in self-confidence.
“There are many ways to use this book,” the authors state. “You can dip in and out; you can jump interactively from one entry to another using the many cross-references; you can follow one of the alternative routes to explore a specific topic in more detail; you can try out the writing ideas . . . “ (2).
The “alternative routes” listed at the end of the book suggest various topics on which one might be seeking aid, then list several sections in the book that might be most helpful. For example, under Poetry, the authors recommend the pages on alliteration and assonance, archaisms, ballad, epic, experimental poetry, fixed forms, haiku, lineation, metaphor, meter and rhythm, etc., If one prefers to focus on editing and revision, he/she could proceed through anachronism, clichés, clutter, drafts, editing, feedback, grammar, proofreading, punctuation, spellcheck, and so on.
Many of the sections contain short excerpts from other well-known writers’ prose and discuss how each is a good example of creating characters, conflict, description, dialogue, plot, point of view, and numerous other aspects of producing a short story or novel.
Three of the most useful sections for budding writers also are found early in the books—in the B’s—and deal with the basic notion of being a writer, the frustrating problems of beginning a creative project, and getting beyond writer’s block. In both the being a writer and block sections, the authors affirm that one must eschew the notion that writers are a pre-established and elite corps—“white people, geniuses, French absinthe drinkers” (19)—a falsehood and a sure recipe for blockage. “You may not feel much like a creative genius, you may not even feel like a writer, but you can just keep writing. This is what writers do: they sit down in front of the page, the screen, curious, afraid. Words appear one after another. They cross them out, they look at what they’ve written, they write more. Not being, but doing” (16).
A particularly interesting section entitled experimental writing discusses the use of stream of consciousness and metafiction approaches and notes that certain authors apply film techniques such a jump-cuts, freeze frames, and scratch methods to the narrative arts.
In the last section, zeitgeist (“spirit of the time”), the authors clarify their book’s parenthetical subtitle. Leach and Graham state, “But rational consciousness, knowing is not all that we need. Writers who are in touch with their time and who write with commitment and passion are part of the zeitgeist; one of the makers and shakers, not one of the followers” (190).
At the end of most of the sections is a short list of related readings and/or websites on the specific topic.
As a final testimonial to the practicality of this manual: During the course of reading this book, I sat down and cranked out an original short story. While I do not claim that it is a great creative work, Leach and Graham must concur that, for the moment, I have transcended writer’s block and conquered problems with beginnings.
February 15, 2015
Informative and helpful with a smattering of humor to keep it interesting.
February 24, 2013
this book was on the wrong shelf; shouted at me to pick it up. now,thanks to it, i know i'm not the only one "feathering about" or doing "reflective writing"; it is a thing ha ha!
March 18, 2016
Alphabetically arranged topics on creative writing. Handy Manual for Aspiring Writers
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews