Product Description

This book will show how your own personal experiences can provide you with an endless supply of ideas for your writing - whether fiction or non-fiction. You will learn how to write about what you know - and you certainly know a lot. The good news is that the older you are, and the older you get, the more experiences you have had - so you'll always have something to write about. The author, Lynn Hackles, will show you how to make your own 'Raking up your past' file - using memories, lists, diaries, newspapers, smells, family trees, etc. And how to turn your own anecdotes recounted to friends and family into useful prose; and how to fashion the passed-down history of your ancestors into a family saga.With this book you'll also learn how to: sell a snippet of conversation; make money by sharing secrets; take your boss and your best friend and come up with a new character; sell one event in your life to several different markets; impart knowledge you didn't think you had to people who didn't know they needed it; and, use the emotions, traumas, joys and experiences of your own life to make your writing stronger and more saleable. With this book you'll never run out of ideas; writers block will be a thing of the past.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #133018 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 186 pages

Review
`I suggest you take it with you when you travel to work... You will begin thinking and often times those are the moments to begin a new journey. The book will prod you onward. Highly recommended.'
--www.london-morning-paper.co.uk

About the Author
The first words Lynne Hackles ever sold netted GBP 2. Since then her motto 'never let truth get in the way of entertainment' has helped turn hundreds of personal experiences into stories which have sold in the UK and abroad. She leads writing workshops and runs tutorials for a leading correspondence school.

Customer Reviews

Invaluable!
I first discovered Lynne Hackles through a book called Wannabe a Writer? When I found that Lynne, a respected writing coach and author, had written a book on writing, I preordered it at once because I knew it would be special - and it is.

This book covers every aspect of writing - and many you'd never have dreamed of - and tells you, simply and precisely, how to find ideas, write and get published. It's also a great read and a book you'll come back to time and time again.

Brilliant!
When I started to write almost thirty years ago, this is the book I needed, dreamt about, yearned for! It would have saved me many years of struggling to find that magic "something" that all writers seem to know and which Lynne has somehow put into words.

Whether you want to write novels or letters, speeches or articles this book is brimming with ideas to get you started and will speak to YOU. And it's not just for beginners - it's an inspiring and insightful read for any writer.

I have read a lot of books about writing, but I keep very few and probably have less than half a dozen on my shelf. Lynne's will be up there with the rest of my keepers and she won't be gathering dust!

If you have it in your heart to write, along with the splinter of ice that Lynne refers to and which all writers will recognise, buy this book!

Writing From Life: How to turn your personal experience into profitable prose
This book does exactly what it says on the cover. It is absolutely jammed packed with great ideas. So, even though `nothing much has happened to me', just reading the book has fired my imagination.

If you are thinking about taking a writing course, I suggest you buy this book first and work though it, whether you want to write for children or adults, feature articles to gothic horror, as it will show you how your own past can make your writing come alive.

Writing from Life demonstrates how to take all those things that you thought were fairly insignificant and make good use of them. Nothing goes to waste from noticing the colour of a leaf to baking a cake for you grandson. It talks you through how you can use personal experiences to put more emotion into your writing and provide vivid settings. There are examples and anecdotes not only from the author's life, but from a whole range of highly successful, professional writers, who talk about how they have used their personal experiences in their writing.

Each chapter contains exercises and tips that not only inspire you, but explain how YOU can make money from your writing by identifying the markets available to send your writing to.

This book is a `must have' for every writer's bookshelf.