Monday, 22 February 2010
Another book of writing exercises today.
What If? Writing exercises for Fiction Writers
This is quite an interesting little book. It's divided into sections on things like story beginnings and perspective and then each section has half a dozen chapters, of two or three pages each, explaining what it is the exercise is meant to be about, examples of the point the authors are trying to make from published works, and then a short exercise, usually followed by example 'answers' from members of the authors' writing class.
The exercise I posted here the other day about your character's habitat was from this book.
I have to admit a bias here. I don't think much of creative writing courses. Partly because many of them seem intrinsically biased against 'genre' fiction, which is of course my great love, and partly because of a nagging feeling that if these people knew so much about writing they'd be making money doing that instead of teaching classes on it. I know this is a little unfair to the really helpful creative writing classes out there, but it's how I feel. The books I have that are written as if you were on one of those courses are, therefore, not exactly my favourites. But I do like this little book.
Some of the exercises strike me as helpful when you're trying to understand a concept but something you'd never want to do again after you get it - like the first one which has you writing first sentences for stories you're never going to write. This is a useful exploration, along with the author's notes on the different ways of starting stories, of what works and what doesn't, but once you have a firm grip on that it doesn't strike me as anything I'd want to spend my time doing on a regular basis - I could be wrong as I haven't yet attempted this exercise (because starting with the first exercise in the book is just far too predictable), but that's how it strikes me.
Others though, like the second one where you deal with the past of a story (i.e. everything that happened before the first page) and analyse stories you've written or drafted seems like it could be really helpful and something I might do with the more plot-intensive stories when I read the editing stage in future. And the one I posted here is very helpful both for thinking about your story's setting and characterisation.
All in all I think I would recommend this book. Even the exercises I wouldn't repeat made me think about something to do with the craft of writing. It's not a book I'd go to for inspiration, like the Book of Matches, but it is one I think I will find myself coming back to again and again.
What If? Writing exercises for Fiction Writers
This is quite an interesting little book. It's divided into sections on things like story beginnings and perspective and then each section has half a dozen chapters, of two or three pages each, explaining what it is the exercise is meant to be about, examples of the point the authors are trying to make from published works, and then a short exercise, usually followed by example 'answers' from members of the authors' writing class.
The exercise I posted here the other day about your character's habitat was from this book.
I have to admit a bias here. I don't think much of creative writing courses. Partly because many of them seem intrinsically biased against 'genre' fiction, which is of course my great love, and partly because of a nagging feeling that if these people knew so much about writing they'd be making money doing that instead of teaching classes on it. I know this is a little unfair to the really helpful creative writing classes out there, but it's how I feel. The books I have that are written as if you were on one of those courses are, therefore, not exactly my favourites. But I do like this little book.
Some of the exercises strike me as helpful when you're trying to understand a concept but something you'd never want to do again after you get it - like the first one which has you writing first sentences for stories you're never going to write. This is a useful exploration, along with the author's notes on the different ways of starting stories, of what works and what doesn't, but once you have a firm grip on that it doesn't strike me as anything I'd want to spend my time doing on a regular basis - I could be wrong as I haven't yet attempted this exercise (because starting with the first exercise in the book is just far too predictable), but that's how it strikes me.
Others though, like the second one where you deal with the past of a story (i.e. everything that happened before the first page) and analyse stories you've written or drafted seems like it could be really helpful and something I might do with the more plot-intensive stories when I read the editing stage in future. And the one I posted here is very helpful both for thinking about your story's setting and characterisation.
All in all I think I would recommend this book. Even the exercises I wouldn't repeat made me think about something to do with the craft of writing. It's not a book I'd go to for inspiration, like the Book of Matches, but it is one I think I will find myself coming back to again and again.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment