This book is a guide for digging deeper within yourself and for observing more closely around you. And then for taking what you discover and rediscovering it so that you may use it better in your writing.



Sound like a puzzle? It is. In fact the entire book is based on a short series of "Puzzlers" geared to get you thinking and in a problem-solving frame of mind. Why? Because writing is based on questions and answers and problem solving...even when we aren't aware of it.



It begins with a quote by George Meredith: "More brain, Lord, more brain!" Then it proceeds to give you puzzles, checklists, thinking/'writing exercises and other tools - all explored, yet explained simply, to help you leave behind the world of the "mundane" and find the world of the more creative.



It offers problem solving techniques on everything from character to scene to plot development and more.



Section III of the book offers "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Writers". Throughout the book, the skill of creative writing is analyzed in a logical, offbeat, fun way.

The "step by step" way in which the book was written. The concrete and very useful advice it gave. The writing style and format. The fun way in which it was written. There was never a dull moment reading this book.

The first two and a half pages, which included the John F. Kennedy quote: "All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days...nor even in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin." I understand why the author chose the quote - he introduces a strategy of solving puzzles, called "THEBEGIN". But reading the quote and the first two and a half pages made me think the book was going to be more technical and irrelevant than what I wanted. FORTUNATELY, I continued on to the next page and the next and so on.

After reading this book I wanted to WRITE! I wanted to start using the advice that had been given.

I felt empowered, as if there were no limits. I felt that most of what I had learned about writing before that point had been mere "surface stuff".

James V. Smith Jr. is the author of several psychological thrillers. He is also the author of "You Can Write A Novel".

In my opinion this is the ultimate "how to write creatively" book. If I had to have only one reference book for the actual skill of writing (beyond punctuation and grammar), this would be it. The author's "readibility, number of characters per word, number of words per sentence" theory is fascinating. The book offers formulas and yet details how to springboard your writing far beyond those formulas. I will no doubt refer back to it many times.

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Created Jan 27, 2003 at 12:34am • Submit your own review...