Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Not to start a war here, but Janet Burroway's book *is* fresh, and it's the best, most comprehensive multigenre text on the market. And it's affordable both for university students and writers who want to use it on their own. No, it's not full of inspirational gobbledygook and gimmicky suggestions to touch the heart of the writer. Instead, it's a very smart book that asks the writer to join in the long histories of the genres it discusses and offers the most succinctly articulated descriptions of techniques and approaches that will not only get a writer started writing but that will also help that writer understand what makes good writing good. The most innovative aspect of Burroway's book is that it takes creative writing as a whole and discusses those basic elements that make all writing good, from the need for concrete imagery that says something to the need for narrative to move and develop across a work. And it offers dozens and dozens of recent examples to illustrate its points. As an anthology alone, this book would be a good read. But Burroway's comments very aptly help a reader to understand what is working well in each of her excerpts. No, it doesn't offer up elaborate metaphors about bones or light or any inner writing child as a way to nurture the soul of the writer. But from my experience as a writing instructor, it's not the soul of the beginning writer that needs nurturing. This book understands quite well the need to nurture the mind of the writer first.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft (Penguin Academics Series)
Written by best-selling author Janet Burroway, Imaginative Writingis an introductory creative writing book that covers the four genres: essay, fiction, poetry, and drama,.Part I addresses the elements of craft (Image, Voice, Character, Setting, Story, and Development and Revision) while Part II explores the genres (Essay, Fiction, Poetry, and Drama). "Try This" Exercises appear throughout each chapter. Provocative and fun, the exercises help readers develop the specific writing skills discussed within the chapters. The book also includes an anthology of 90 complete readings in the four genres. Photographs and graphics, with accompanying warm-up activities, open each chapter.Appendices include collaborative exercises to emphasize the sensory foundations of imaginative writing, a description of standard formats for submitting finished work in each of the four genres, and an outline of the basic elements of prosody. For those interested in developing their creative writing skills.
