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thereadingcountess 's review for:
Spilling Ink: A Young Writer's Handbook
by Anne Mazer
Publisher’s Summary:
LEARN HOW TO WRITE LIKE THE EXPERTS, FROM THE EXPERTS.
Practical advice in a perfect package for young aspiring writers.
After receiving letters from fans asking for writing advice,accomplished authors Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter joined together to create this guidebook for young writers. The authors mix inspirational anecdotes with practical guidance on how to find a voice, develop characters and plot,
make revisions, and overcome writer’s block. Fun writing prompts will help young writers jump-start their own projects, and encouragement throughout will keep them at work.
******************************************************************************************************************************************************
Authors Anne Mazer (The Salamander Room, the Sister Magic series and The Amazing Days of Abby Hayes series) and Ellen Potter (the Olivia Kidney series, Pish Posh and my personal favorite, SLOB) team up together to craft a book geared toward the middle grade set. Offering sage advice, this reader-friendly book is stuffed with helpful tips for those wishing to start on their own writing journey. Mazer and Potter come into and out of the text alternately, adding their own (often funny) spin on how to write first drafts (just write!), how to interject dialogue (a sticky point with kids), encouragement to keep a journal and write in it daily, as well as how to deal with writer’s block and criticism.
Though aimed at ages 9-14, Spilling Ink will most definitely be used as a reference for me with my own students as well as when I help facilitate a teacher’s writing conference this summer. I can envision placing the text on my ELMO and reading whole chunks of Spilling Ink aloud. The conversational tone the authors adopt gives the reader the illusion that they are chatting about the craft of writing over a leisurely cup of tea with friends, and truly makes the oftentimes challenging task of writing accessible. The whimsically drawn illustrations by Matt Phelan add even more levity. I especially enjoyed the “I Dare You” sections of the book. Peppered throughout the thirty sections of text, these serve as practical writing prompts: “Think of an event that you wouldn’t consider suspenseful. It might be waiting for the school bus, walking your dog, or visiting your grandparents. Create a situation in which this everyday even suddenly becomes incredibly suspenseful.” (p. 103) Spilling Ink is a teacher’s best friend!
Favorite passages:
From ‘Showing Up On the Page’: “Eighty percent of success is showing up,” Woody Allen said. (p. 13)
From ‘Truth or Dare: Getting to Know Your Character’s Deep, Dark Secrets’: *Ask your character the following questions: then write down their answers. They will answer you, I promise. At fist it will feel like the answers are coming from your own brain, but you are sort of sharing a brain with your character at this point. You are imagining what it is like to be them (a very useful skill, both in writing and in life!)
Here are the questions (feel free to make up your own too).
1. What is your happiest memory?
2. What makes you laugh so hard soda shoots out of your nose?
3. What don’t you want anyone to find out about you?
4. What is the best part of your personality?
5. What shoes do you usually wear?
6. Name some things that you are not very good at.
7. How would your best friend describe how you look?
8. What irritiates you (i.e., noises, bad habits, personality traits)?
9. What are you afraid of?
10. Tell me about your family.
11. What does your bedroom look like?
12. What do you think of yourself when you look in the mirror?
13. What’s the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?
14. Do you have a crush on anyone? (pgs. 26-27)
On page 181, a Writing Partner Contract complete with pages/words of writing and days of the week partners are committing to write. “We also hereby declare that we think the other one is brave, supremely talented, and generally awesome.”
*ARC (uncorrected proof not for sale) made available by Anne Mazer. Spilling Ink will be published March 30, 2010.
LEARN HOW TO WRITE LIKE THE EXPERTS, FROM THE EXPERTS.
Practical advice in a perfect package for young aspiring writers.
After receiving letters from fans asking for writing advice,accomplished authors Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter joined together to create this guidebook for young writers. The authors mix inspirational anecdotes with practical guidance on how to find a voice, develop characters and plot,
make revisions, and overcome writer’s block. Fun writing prompts will help young writers jump-start their own projects, and encouragement throughout will keep them at work.
******************************************************************************************************************************************************
Authors Anne Mazer (The Salamander Room, the Sister Magic series and The Amazing Days of Abby Hayes series) and Ellen Potter (the Olivia Kidney series, Pish Posh and my personal favorite, SLOB) team up together to craft a book geared toward the middle grade set. Offering sage advice, this reader-friendly book is stuffed with helpful tips for those wishing to start on their own writing journey. Mazer and Potter come into and out of the text alternately, adding their own (often funny) spin on how to write first drafts (just write!), how to interject dialogue (a sticky point with kids), encouragement to keep a journal and write in it daily, as well as how to deal with writer’s block and criticism.
Though aimed at ages 9-14, Spilling Ink will most definitely be used as a reference for me with my own students as well as when I help facilitate a teacher’s writing conference this summer. I can envision placing the text on my ELMO and reading whole chunks of Spilling Ink aloud. The conversational tone the authors adopt gives the reader the illusion that they are chatting about the craft of writing over a leisurely cup of tea with friends, and truly makes the oftentimes challenging task of writing accessible. The whimsically drawn illustrations by Matt Phelan add even more levity. I especially enjoyed the “I Dare You” sections of the book. Peppered throughout the thirty sections of text, these serve as practical writing prompts: “Think of an event that you wouldn’t consider suspenseful. It might be waiting for the school bus, walking your dog, or visiting your grandparents. Create a situation in which this everyday even suddenly becomes incredibly suspenseful.” (p. 103) Spilling Ink is a teacher’s best friend!
Favorite passages:
From ‘Showing Up On the Page’: “Eighty percent of success is showing up,” Woody Allen said. (p. 13)
From ‘Truth or Dare: Getting to Know Your Character’s Deep, Dark Secrets’: *Ask your character the following questions: then write down their answers. They will answer you, I promise. At fist it will feel like the answers are coming from your own brain, but you are sort of sharing a brain with your character at this point. You are imagining what it is like to be them (a very useful skill, both in writing and in life!)
Here are the questions (feel free to make up your own too).
1. What is your happiest memory?
2. What makes you laugh so hard soda shoots out of your nose?
3. What don’t you want anyone to find out about you?
4. What is the best part of your personality?
5. What shoes do you usually wear?
6. Name some things that you are not very good at.
7. How would your best friend describe how you look?
8. What irritiates you (i.e., noises, bad habits, personality traits)?
9. What are you afraid of?
10. Tell me about your family.
11. What does your bedroom look like?
12. What do you think of yourself when you look in the mirror?
13. What’s the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?
14. Do you have a crush on anyone? (pgs. 26-27)
On page 181, a Writing Partner Contract complete with pages/words of writing and days of the week partners are committing to write. “We also hereby declare that we think the other one is brave, supremely talented, and generally awesome.”
*ARC (uncorrected proof not for sale) made available by Anne Mazer. Spilling Ink will be published March 30, 2010.