Normally I post book reviews to An Arrow Through the Air. However, since this book is about writing for writers, I’m posting it here. This is what I just wrote on Goodreads. Note: I’ve edited and edited, and I can’t figure out what’s wrong with this text, cant get it to be the right size. Well, maybe that last thing worked, though the overall formatting of this is messed up.
Nancy Lamb’s book on writing is one of the best I’ve read. She has avoided many of the mistakes experienced writers tend to make in their advice books: forgetting what it’s like to be a new writer, and a writer who has not yet been published by a trade publisher. She also avoided slanting her book toward trade publishing as opposed to self-publishing. I’m not a new writer (been at it for 12 years), but after years of frustration I elected to self-publish. Everything in Nancy’s book was very applicable to crafting a story for self-publishing.
If I had one criticism, it’s that the last couple of chapters were general writing advice, the type that applies as much to non-fiction and magazine article publishing as it does not fictional storytelling. Maybe you have to include that in a writing book; certainly the specific language usage relates to the excellence of a story. But it seemed to be the same things I’ve read in two dozen writing books, whereas the early chapters were new and fresh and incredibly useful.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about how to craft compelling stories. This one will now find a place on my reference bookshelf.
Read from August 26 to September 10, 2012