A review by aeschwarz
Been There, Done That: Writing Stories from Real Life by Mike Winchell

4.0

I really like the premise for this anthology. It is broken up in sections, each with their own theme. For instance one section has stories all clustered around the theme of change. Another was a series of stories based around the theme of putting others first. In each subsection the author writes about a real event that occurred in their life growing up that ties in with the theme and then writes a fictional story based on what actually happened. Some of the stories were great. Others just so-so. The idea behind all of them about writing based on something real was tremendously fun to read and analyze from a creative writing standpoint. But I think middle grade readers can also appreciate this anthology. None of the stories are very long, all of them have characters a middle grader could relate to. But most importantly I think getting a small glimpse of what can go on with a writer when they create a story would be very appealing to young readers. I'm really glad I read this and recommend it to writers and middle grade readers alike.