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jelundberg's review against another edition
5.0
Not just a book on writing instruction or a memoir of the writing life (although both of that is in here), but also a thorough examination of Delany's literary theory and criticism. It is a complete engagement with literature, and once again reveals a thoughtful, intelligent, and astute academic observer of the entire literary (and paraliterary) experience. (Full review here.)
bookwyrmknits's review
This has a lot of good information, but it's dense. It's hard to digest all of it. It is also majorly influenced by the fact that Delaney is a highly critical reader; I had difficulty connecting with his advice even before he mentioned 15% of the way in that he DNFed 19 out of 20 books he started reading. I might come back to this later to read more of it, but for now I've had all I care to read of this book.
finesilkflower's review against another edition
3.5
It’s funny, I disliked this book when I only read the writing advice portion, because I found the advice vague, inapplicable, and overly focused on small details about word choice and grammar. But when I read the letters, including an insightful review of Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” from a Black queer perspective, I began to realize how thoughtful and wise Delany is. He seems like the kind of writing teacher who would give you an absolutely laser focused critique of your ms that would make you shatter onto the floor and realize all the things about yourself you thought were hidden deep inside. It’s just a shame that doesn’t really seem to translate to generalized writing advice.
wmhenrymorris's review against another edition
Aggressively erudite and bracing, but also amusing, interesting, thoughtful, true and useful. About Writing is probably of most use if you share some of Delany's interests and opinions. That is: not afraid genre fiction or literary fiction or experimental fiction. Interested in rigor on both the sentence level and structural level. Not allergic to both highly personal but also highly theoretical essaying.
If any of this turns you off, stick with King's On Writing.
If any of this turns you off, stick with King's On Writing.
meganmilks's review against another edition
5.0
reading this again. hope to one day teach an advanced or graduate-level fiction workshop expressly so i can proliferate this book's wisdom about writing.
alicamj's review against another edition
2.0
This was not the book for me.
As a self pubbed young adult and romance author I found this book condescending and the techniques not applicable for my work.
As a self pubbed young adult and romance author I found this book condescending and the techniques not applicable for my work.
alicamj's review
2.0
This was not the book for me.
As a self pubbed young adult and romance author I found this book condescending and the techniques not applicable for my work.
As a self pubbed young adult and romance author I found this book condescending and the techniques not applicable for my work.