Product Description

The success of the writing courses at UEA belies the myth that writing can't be taught. This coursebook takes aspiring writers through three stages of practice: Gathering - getting started, learning how to keep notes, making observations and using memory; Shaping - looking at structure, point of view, character and setting; and Finishing - being your own critic, joining workshops, finding publishers.

Throughout exercises and activities encourage writers to develop their skills. Contributions from forty authors provide a unique and generous pool of information, experience and advice.This is the perfect book for people who are just starting to write as well as for those who want some help honing work already completed. It will suit people writing for publication or just for their own pleasure, those writing on their own or writing groups.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12420 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

About the Author
Julia Bell and Paul Magrs are both novelists and teachers of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia

Customer Reviews

An extremely useful guide to creative writing
This book is a welcome breath of fresh air to anyone interested in creative writing. As someone who has bought every book under the sun on the subject, I can safely say this is the best book on creative writing that I've read. It doesn't offer formulas or guarantee success, as some books do. Instead it dissects the craft of writing in a thorough and clear way, highlighting pitfalls and offering great advice on how to improve your writing. The exercises are useful and demanding, and the references to novels to illustrate various points are extremely helpful, citing very recent popular novels and not just highbrow literature. I very much liked the way chapters - such as characterisation, point of view etc - are broken down into sections written by different writers. It helps to illustrate that everyone works differently,that there is no set correct way to go about things. What they all have in common though is the belief that the craft of writing is one that needs to be worked at and worked at, no matter which way you go about it. It was money very well spent.

A valuable addition to the writer's toolkit
I have little faith in books of the "how to write a novel" type. What they generally do is tell you the glaringly obvious in a fairly superficial way, and do little to stretch the would-be writer. This one is quite different, however, a real revelation. It's the first book of its type I've seen that appears to be written for grown-ups. It is full of hints and ideas, and exercises that are entertaining and yet challenging and eye-opening. I can feel the benefits I have drawn from it in my own writing. Apart from all that it's a good read in itself.

Excellent Reading With Activities To Keep You Busy...
This book is an excellent resource for writers.

Firstly it covers everything that you have to tackle as a writer: getting started, characterisation, setting, plotting and shaping your writing, stepping back to examine your work and revising your work.

It is written by a large number of contributors which provides a great insight into how different authors write (and rewrite) their work. The authors all have different levels of experience also which provides the reader with a wide range of advice and styles.

From the start this book provides lots of tips and hints (such as diary keeping) but it also provides a wealth of activities to help in every aspect of your writing. The activities are great, for example you are asked to rewrite an instruction manual from a different point of view (such as a character who expects a negative outcome). You are also asked to write about an eclectic mix of things such as Marilyn Monroe and garden furniture – such activities not only stimulate your mind and push you into areas which maybe you would never normally write about, but they can also inspire stories and get your creative juices flowing – as well as possibly highlighting areas of your writing which could be improved.

This is a really interesting book for writers – and if you go through the activities then you should also be able to comply with the advice in this book and write something every singe day.