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The Writer's Portable Mentor: A Guide To Art, Craft, And The Writing Life (2010)

by Priscilla Long(Favorite Author)

4.4 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0984242104 (ISBN13: 9780984242108)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Wallingford Press

review 1: I made myself finish this last night because I couldn't fathom having a book on my currently-reading list that dated back to February. There is some really great advice here. It is an intense little book, though. If you want to do independent clause/preposition/paragraph work, it's is awesome. There is even advice about transitions, revisions, putting your work out in to the world -- all really great. Not only does Priscilla Long explain how one becomes a virtuoso writer (perpetually debatable) but she provides great examples of excellent writing so you can see what she means. Here's a warning, though. If I were to do all the exercises in this book, as I first attempted back in February, I'm certain there would be a clear difference in my writing. She encourages you to rea... mored then pause and actually work through what she said and there are like three or four prompts after each. Whew! I had no time for that. Here's another warning, to go with that. Some of her suggestions will work for somebody, they just don't work for me -- there's advice, for instance, to keep a book of vocabulary words to look up and use in a sentence and...well, I read so much because I value it and it builds my vocabulary, and the easiest thing for me is to write a word I don't know on a post-it note and then move on. (Maybe I have too many notebooks and that's something I need to work on, too.) Anyway, I recommend this for a writer who doesn't have time to take a class but wants the writing equivalent of a boot-camp instructor. Your writing and your readers will thank you.
review 2: Great book for me in the sense that I have been looking to improve my grammar and use of language in my writing. I've only just finished it and I already feel like I am carrying something with me into my writing. One thing I kept getting hung up on however was the author's references to "first-rate writers" which gave off a feeling like these were super-human beings or something. That part made me feel just a little intimidated on occasion, although I think the author was trying to inspire the reader to aspire. Instead, it just made me feel like there was a lofty clique that I had very little hope of being accepted in.If you can brace yourself for this buffeting of your insecurities, however, you will get a lot from this book that very few other books on writing have to offer. less

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