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What If?: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers
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| List Price: | £8.99 |
| Price: | £3.18 |
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Dispatched from and sold by aphrohead_books
27 new or used available from £3.12
Average customer review:
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #3739 in Books
- Published on: 1991-11-01
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 256 pages
Editorial Reviews
Synopsis
With more than twenty-five years of experience teaching creative writing between them, Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter offer more than seventy-five exercises for both beginners and more experienced writers. These exercises are designed to develop and refine two basic skills: writing like a writer and, just as important, thinking like a writer. They deal with such topics as: discovering where to start and end a story; learning when to use dialogue and when to use indirect discourse; transforming real events into fiction; and, finding language that both sings and communicates precisely. "What If?" will be an essential addition to every writer's library, a welcome and much-used companion.
Customer Reviews
Excellent
As a writer and teacher of creative writing I find this a gold mine for starter activities and longer writing exercises. It lets you try out approaches and techniques rather than being a how to guide to creative writing- and most importantly shares with you the results of other writers (both famous and unknown) who have done the exercises.
Excellent : useful chapters in bite sized pieces!
The great thing about this book is that the chapters are so short and give you exercises to do right now without a lot of prerequisite preparation. I have written a few stories just based on the exercises. They unearth valuable memories that can be used to enliven stories.
The authors also point out that *everybody's* life is printworthy. If you take the time to remember the large tangle of interesting experiences you've had, many can be used in fiction.
The best exercise book I've found
I've done a lot of reading on writing fiction, and this is by far one of the best. While other books talk about how to go about writing, this one gives you exercises designed to guide you to putting those ideas into practice. It's guarenteed to improve your writing! My writing group has used it for about a year and the members love it.
