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Now Write!: Fiction Writing Exercises from Today's Best Writers and Teachers by Sherry Ellis
zhelana's review
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
As should surprise no one when a book has multiple authors, this book was a mixed bag of good and bad. It's basically just writing exercises grouped into categories such as editing, finishing touches, and characters. The first few chapters were much stronger than the later chapters, and I often wrote 1000 words on a prompt, though then towards the end, well the last one I did I got only 84 words, so that's not great. And I wound up skipping large sections of the end like the one that told me to create a playlist or listen to music my characters might listen to. I'll give it three stars for the beginning chapters, but honestly, I just couldn't even with the later chapters.
thepamz's review against another edition
4.0
No es el mejor de la serie de Now Write, está más corto y tiene menos o nulo contexto previo a los ejercicios, pero igual tiene muchos ejercicios y notas que valen la pena y aplican a cualquier género.
_eliza's review against another edition
4.0
Loved the range of ideas, pulled out a few exercises that would work for my middle school kids. This book would work well with a high school AP or Honors class :)
larmendariz's review against another edition
4.0
Even though I teach middle school, many of these exercises can be tweaked/ reworded for adolescent creative writers. Even if the exercises don't work the way you envisioned, they still work.
warwriter's review against another edition
4.0
Some of these exercises were great (The Collage is one I like to use now), and some, well, you can tell they're written by new agers with their whole "guided imagery" thing. In general, this is one of the best books on prompts and exercises that I've read.
xterminal's review
3.0
Sherry Ellis (ed.), Now Write!: Fiction Exercises from Today's Best Teachers and Writers (Tarcher, 2006)
Exactly what it says it is: a compendium of writing exercises from various folks. Ellis herself is entirely transparent aside from a brief introduction; from there, it's the writers and nothing but.
Needless to say, in a book like this, especially with so many different contributors (there are eighty-two different sections), you're bound to have some inconsistency. As well, it sometimes seems as if there's just too much of a good thing; we go right from one exercise into the next, with only the barest separation into chapters designed to highlight different emphases in the exercises. I think most people will find a handful, or maybe a dozen, exercises they like and continually come back to those, rather than utilizing everything in the book. ***
Exactly what it says it is: a compendium of writing exercises from various folks. Ellis herself is entirely transparent aside from a brief introduction; from there, it's the writers and nothing but.
Needless to say, in a book like this, especially with so many different contributors (there are eighty-two different sections), you're bound to have some inconsistency. As well, it sometimes seems as if there's just too much of a good thing; we go right from one exercise into the next, with only the barest separation into chapters designed to highlight different emphases in the exercises. I think most people will find a handful, or maybe a dozen, exercises they like and continually come back to those, rather than utilizing everything in the book. ***
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