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angelescibilsb's review against another edition
2.0
This book would be great if I was ten and looking for fun prompts to write. But I am not ten, and the writing advice I'm looking for is not "keep writing" anymore.
khazlettwrites's review
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
5.0
The target audience is young writers, but even as an adult I learned a lot to improve my own writing craft. The fact that the book is so short and written simply, with its young audience in mind, makes this even better. I read it in about 2 hours, compared to the nearly 6 I spent reading Stephen King's On Writing just before (which I also really liked). Great for getting a lot out of a particular topic if you don't have lots of time.
Each chapter has a writing exercise. They start out simple in the early chapters, but later exercises build on previous ones and/or really get you thinking and being creative. I didn't do any of them myself (yet) because I was just trying to get through the book, but they're all really good for young writers, and I'll probably be revisiting some of the more complex ones myself.
I initially thought to give this 4*, but considering I'm not the target audience and thinking about it from that perspective, it's a solid 5* from me.
Each chapter has a writing exercise. They start out simple in the early chapters, but later exercises build on previous ones and/or really get you thinking and being creative. I didn't do any of them myself (yet) because I was just trying to get through the book, but they're all really good for young writers, and I'll probably be revisiting some of the more complex ones myself.
I initially thought to give this 4*, but considering I'm not the target audience and thinking about it from that perspective, it's a solid 5* from me.
ariel_bloomer's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
3.25
I wasn’t particularly enchanted by this.
cosmicrusalka's review against another edition
4.0
Even though it's meant for kids, I still found this book to be quite useful, the exercises were fun and overall it was a good read.
Most importantly it motivated me to push myself into writing again and not letting myself get discouraged.
Most importantly it motivated me to push myself into writing again and not letting myself get discouraged.
thewallflower00's review against another edition
4.0
Levine is the person who wrote Ella Enchanted. I liked that book so much I wanted to check out her non-fiction book on "how to write". I thought, by the title, it would have to do with specifically magic and fantasy, but no, it's writing in general. That's not a bad thing.
This is one of the better writing books I've read. Liked it more than "Bird by Bird" (but that's not a high bar to jump for me). The focus is on prompts and exercises (i.e. you learn to write by writing). It also never wears out its welcome. Some books emphasize sentence structure and adverb placement -- too much nitty gritty. This one doesn't care, and it shouldn't. It's wants you out there and producing.
However, it is definitely skewed toward younger audiences. Middle school and high schoolers will get more out of this book than I did from Stephen King's "On Writing".
mbrandmaier's review against another edition
5.0
Lots of tips for aspiring teen writers. Many great little writing exercises as well. I wish our library system owned more than 1 copy of this.