World Famous Comics: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creative Writing, 2nd Edition (The Complete Idiot's Guide)
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creative Writing, 2nd Edition (The Complete Idiot's Guide)
By: Laurie E. Rozakis Publisher: Alpha Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Alpha Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 384 Publication Date: June 01, 2004 Release Date: June 01, 2004
Amazon.com: You don't have to be a complete idiot to glean something from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creative Writing, but it would help to be a complete novice. In a mere 300 or so large-print pages, author Laurie Rozakis sails through the fundamentals of writing novels, short stories, poetry, biographies, textbooks, reference books, magazine articles, plays, and screenplays. Then she offers primers on getting published, finding and dealing with an agent, and the legal issues involved. Whew! There is a lot of useful information here, but any given section tends toward the basic. The tone is perky and enthusiastic, slaphappy funny, and trying a little too hard to be hip--has poetry's place in the world really "changed more radically than Dennis Rodman's hair color"? Interesting tidbits gleaned: Margaret Mitchell originally planned to call Scarlett, the protagonist in Gone with the Wind, Pansy; John McPhee "accumulated fifteen years of New Yorker rejections before the magazine began buying his articles." Best quirky advice: if you're a romance novelist looking for a pseudonym, try combining the name of your first pet and your mother's maiden name; if you're a soap opera scriptwriter with the same quandary, combine your middle name with the street you lived on as a child.
Product Description: A creative writing class in a book-REVISED.
Major revisions take this popular Complete Idiot's Guide to a new level-offering readers a better way to unlock their creativity from the first page. Exercises help them explore their talents and experiment with different genres and forms of writing, including short stories, narrative fiction, memoirs, magazine articles, poetry, drama, blogging, and freewriting.
Great book! A section of internet and blogging was needed though I wanted to take a creative writing class this spring but the class was closed. There's also an online class but it's too expensive so I ought to buy this book by the same author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to College Survival (Complete Idiot's Guide To...).
I like this book. Rozakis explains the science behind creative writing as well as to write...well creatively! She explains things very well but her rules (when it comes to computers and internet) seem a bit outdated and old fashioned (mind you that this is the second edition so this was written before blogs become a huge hit). A whole chapter on internet and blogging would make this book more useful. That way people who have blogs (like me) could go for the right advice. (Maybe for the third edition?)
I think the author should've talked a bit about fanfiction and their effects in society and the internet. It's not they're bad but we use copyright characters without former permission so I wanted to read her opinion and perhaps her advice.
On the ohter hand, the last chapters of the book are extremely important. This is because they tell how sell your stories, articles, etc. and get them published (and earn money form them). I thought publishing was easy but it really isn't. She stresses the importance of copyright because far too many people steal manuscripts and publish them as their own.
If you want to learn more about creative writing without breaking an arm and a leg, you should buy this book.
Creativity in Detail I started a creative writing club and I thought... Hmmm how can I begin? So, I ordered this book, which became essential to the lessons and gave good tips on creativity and how to begin the process. So, If you don't know where to begin this book is the guide, but if you already know all the steps then this is not the book you are looking for. Sometimes writers get a mental block and don't know where to begin so, this book did just that, it helped the creativity process.
Trying to do too many things at once... The first part of this book deals with overcoming all the mental obstacles people may have in writing... Once you buy a book on writing it is reasonable to assume that you are determined to write and that the mental obstacles are not your major concern. Further, a lot of the advice given on overcoming obstacles boils down to; at best common sense - at worst being downright ridiculous.
In the second part of the book the author tries to cover everything from short stories over poetry to script writing and offers very little advice that readers with an average IQ wouldn't already have figured out themselves.
Last part of the book deals with how to sell your work, finding an editor etc. and a substantial part of this is devoted to address lists that are most likely already outdated at the time of printing..
Unless you regard yourself as a complete idiot - which I assume that very few aspiring writers do - don't waste your money or time on this book.
In construction
The chapters on Planning and shaping what to write are good. This book is so full of interesting facts about how famous writers write. CITES: Ray Bradbury- 'The Pendulum'. B.O.Schwartz Harlan Ellison Alfred Bester Robert Bloch H.P.Lovecraft
great for beginners This guide is for the ultimate beginner who is thinking of being a writer. It covers the very basics of creative writing. She starts the book off by saying anyone can be a writer and the point is to not get intimidated and just do it. She covers the process of writing, the other sections cover fiction, poetry, nonfiction, drama, scripts, and screenplays, she then tells you how to go about selling your work. How to deal with literary agents, contracts, fees, and bookkeeping. There is even a section on contests and grants. In the last chapter the author talks about editors and writer's block. This book is packed with info for the very beginner, so if you're thinking about being a writer and are just starting out then get this book to guide you.
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