Monday, April 30, 2012
My Review of WRITING YOUR WAY by Don Fry
Photo Credit: Writer's Digest
Writing instructor Don Fry believes that writers struggle with efficient productivity because they use someone else’s writing process instead of one that is perfectly suited to them. This is because they only know how to write the way they were taught. The process they’re taught may work for some writers, but for others something more reflective of their own personality, skills, and natural talents may be much more effective. WRITING YOUR WAY is a new book by Don Fry designed to walk writers through developing their own personal writing style and writing voice. The key is to develop a process that works for you.
One of the most helpful parts of the book comes early on as Fry walks writers through the five steps of the creative process for any piece of writing. The five steps are
1. IDEA – What is your article or story about?
2. GATHER – What source material will you need to develop the idea?
3. ORGANIZE – How will you structure the article or story?
4. DRAFT – The initial writing of the piece without any editing along the way.
5. REVISE – The revision of the initial draft.
I loved this breakdown of the creative process because it was so clear and immediately helpful. As Fry unpacks these steps one per chapter, he also unpacks various ways to tackle each of the steps so that writers can discover what specifically works best for them in each step.
I found the interviewing tips in the GATHER chapter to be very helpful, as well as the various people Fry encourages writers to have in their lives to be ready sources for the things they write. I also appreciate the encouragement to just write and worry about revision after the initial draft is complete. Editing as I write is one of the things that slow me down the most when I’m writing, so this was something I can immediately put into practice.
Fry finishes up the book by discussing ways for a writer to develop their own voice. There are some very helpful ideas about a writer’s different personas used in their writing.
WRITING YOUR WAY is a great book because it focuses on helping writers to become more productive and more in tune with their own creative process. Writers will likely want to read with a pen in hand to latch on to the most important ideas for their own unique process.
I received this book for free for review from Writer’s Digest Books, and the opinions expressed in this review are completely my own
Sunday, April 29, 2012
My Review of STARTING YOUR CAREER AS A FREELANCE WRITER by Moira Allen
I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Not necessarily because I feel like I need to get paid to do it, but it would be great to get to spend more of my time doing what I love most. It’s a great way to get much of the weighty thoughts that bounce around in my head out in a creative and hopefully stirring way. I once heard Erwin McManus say that he who tells the best stories shapes the culture. Writing has a way of influencing and ultimately giving people hope. Maybe you’re like me and you want to write not only to stir people, but make a living at it as well. STARTING YOUR CAREER AS A FREELANCE WRITER by Moira Allen is a book that is proving to be very helpful as I learn more about what it takes to write and make a living from it.
Allen uncovers clearly and concisely what it looks like to be a freelance writer, giving encouragement and real-world practical steps to take to along the way. Some of the practical tips include finding time to write, setting achievable goals, finding ideas and shaping those ideas into a well-though-out article, and how to pursue publication.
There are some really helpful chapters on doing research, conducting interviews, exploring markets, and writing query letters. Online writing was also discussed, which is what I was most familiar with. Copywriting is one of the most prolific ways for a freelance writer to generate income, so I really appreciated the section on copywriting.
When it comes to breaking into freelance writing, STARTING YOUR CAREER AS A FREELANCE WRITER is an extremely helpful and thorough guide on how to go about it. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in making a living as a writer.
I received this book for free for review from Allworth Press
Allen uncovers clearly and concisely what it looks like to be a freelance writer, giving encouragement and real-world practical steps to take to along the way. Some of the practical tips include finding time to write, setting achievable goals, finding ideas and shaping those ideas into a well-though-out article, and how to pursue publication.
There are some really helpful chapters on doing research, conducting interviews, exploring markets, and writing query letters. Online writing was also discussed, which is what I was most familiar with. Copywriting is one of the most prolific ways for a freelance writer to generate income, so I really appreciated the section on copywriting.
When it comes to breaking into freelance writing, STARTING YOUR CAREER AS A FREELANCE WRITER is an extremely helpful and thorough guide on how to go about it. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in making a living as a writer.
I received this book for free for review from Allworth Press
Friday, April 27, 2012
My Review and GIVEAWAY of AS ONE DEVIL TO ANOTHER by Richard Platt
UPDATE: Congratulations to JoyAnne for winning the free book!
Photo Credit: Tyndale House
C.S. Lewis once wrote a very creative fictional series of letters called The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape was a demon mentoring a younger demon on the most efficient strategies for luring a human being away from the heart of God. It was a compelling and clever way to illustrate the way evil and temptation work in the lives of human beings. Obviously, there are no senior demons mentoring over new and inexperienced demons, but the fictional letters Lewis created were still brilliant in their illumination of how demons have opportunity to work in our lives.
Author Richard Platt has undertaken to write a new series of letters by senior demon Slashreap to younger demon Scardagger in his new book AS ONE DEVIL TO ANOTHER. The book reads much like Lewis’ original Screwtape Letters, and it’s a great tribute to a brilliant man with a brilliant mind. Platt takes us on the journey of a young woman whose heart is constantly being worked on by a demon with the purpose of keeping her away from God, or the Adversary as Slashreap prefers to call him.
AS ONE DEVIL TO ANOTHER is a creative exploration of the fragile hearts of human beings and where we’re the most vulnerable to having our hearts pulled away from God. Platt takes Lewis’ method and updates it with today’s most prevalent areas of temptation.
I received this book for free for review from Tyndale House Publishing
BOOK GIVEAWAY
Tyndale House has given me the opportunity to give a copy of this book away. For a chance to win this book, leave a comment answering the question below and be sure to include your email address. Contest ends Thursday, May 3rd at 11:59 pm. Winner will be announced on Friday, May 4.
What was your favorite book written by C.S. Lewis and why?
Thursday, April 26, 2012
My Review of MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins
Photo Credit: Scholastic Press
SPOILERS of the previous two books in THE HUNGER GAMES
For seventy-four years the nation of Panem has punished its twelve outlying districts for a failed uprising by forcing each of the districts to send one teenage boy and one teenage girl to a televised fight to the death held annually called The Hunger Games. It’s a sick world where a powerful Capitol finds its greatest enjoyment in the annual bloodshed of the Games. Up to this time, the districts have been held in submission. No one is rebelling, and no one believes they even could. Until in the seventy-fourth Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen commits an act of defiance that forces the Gamemakers to choose two winners instead of one. When the Capitol tries to rectify Katniss’ defiance by forcing Katniss and Peeta Mellarck to partipate in another Hunger Games, a secret faction of rebels breaks her out of the arena and takes her to the once-thought-annihilated District 13. The districts of Panem have been pushed to the brink by the murder of their children in The Hunger Games, but they need a symbol to unite them against the Capitol and end the Games once and for all. As Katniss assumes the role of Panem’s Mockingjay, she must battle the despair she feels over the widespread loss of life her actions have caused and the fate of Peeta who has been kidnapped by the Capitol. Can the rebels win? Can Katniss be the symbol that unites them? Will she ever see Peeta again? The race to the end is thrilling, heartbreaking, and full of surprises.
When it comes to the third book in a trilogy, all bets are off. Everyone is dispensable. Anything can happen. And the tension is raised higher than it ever has before. MOCKINGJAY, the final book in THE HUNGER GAMES Trilogy by Suzanne Collins, kept me up at night. Because I had to finish it and because I felt like I had to deal with the difficult themes it wrestled with. MOCKINGJAY is a book that will make you think long after it’s over and feel the emotions it provokes even longer than that. It’s what you would expect after you’ve been invested in these characters for three books.
I had to wrestle with this one for a couple days because as a piece of dystopian literature, the ending is bittersweet. I didn’t want the story to end, but all great stories must come to an end. For Katniss, the journey to the final page of MOCKINGJAY is mired in heartache and widespread loss of life. The twists and turns of this story kept me reading until the end. In fact, I read MOCKINGJAY in two days.
In the end, I think Suzanne Collins wrote an incredible finale to an emotionally stirring series. I’ve read that many people were disappointed with it, but as the story unfolded, I understood that within the context of the story Collins was trying to tell, the events leading up to the end made since.
There’s a chilling scene near the end that I won’t give away, but it was a brilliant move on Collins’ part to raise the unsettling question of whether the rebels who are trying to overcome the Capitol might just end up another incarnation of the Capitol. Though the goal is to stop The Hunger Games, will the rebels actually stop it or see it as something necessary to maintain control? MOCKINGJAY, as well as the other two books, is a startling exploration of the inner darkness that seems to dwell in human hearts.
MOCKINGJAY explores some weighty themes such as love, vengeance, war, and ultimately hope for a better world. Collins has created a thrilling and thought-provoking story that stands along some of the greatest stories of our time. People will be talking about this one for a long time.
My Review of Jeff Goins' New eBook YOU ARE A WRITER
For some people, writing is a dream, something to be chased sometime in the future. For others, it’s a passion that must be pursued because the words and the ideas are like a pounding force trapped inside a box, desperate to get out. Writer Jeff Goins has become known as one who both pursues his passion for writing and one who cares deeply about helping others who have this calling inside them to pursue it also.
Each week, Goins contributes to his blog GoinsWriter.com an impressive array of advice on how to be the best writer you can be. Generosity is a common theme in his writings, and it’s something he lives out by investing in the careers of others. But no advice he gives is as important as the advice he puts forward and expounds upon in his new eBook YOU ARE A WRITER.
For Goins, it seems pretty obvious that if you want to be a writer then you actually need to sit down and write. In the words of another writer Steven Pressfield, you must “do the work.” But Goins equally realizes that writers face inner opposition all the time. They need something to drive them, encouragement to keep going, and practical steps to take toward success. YOU ARE A WRITER is the perfect place to find those. Goins’ writing journey has been going on for a long time, but it’s only in the last year that things really started taking off for him, and he graciously shares that journey with us and what he learned along the way.
Never one to blush away from the incredible difficulty that being a writer can be sometimes be, Goins stays in the realm of the positive to give writers steps that will work for them if they’re willing to put in the work. Covering three crucial elements of building a platform, establishing a brand, and creating channels of connection, YOU ARE A WRITER shows writers how to get their writing before the viewing eyes of others and creating a following. Writers often have very profound and important things to say that will affect many, and Goins shows them how to get their ideas out there and embraced by the people who share areas of commonality with them.
A really helpful element to the book near the end is the concept that before writing a book, writers should write for magazines and gets practice and build relationships there. And of course, he walks writers through the journey of how to do it.
YOU ARE A WRITER is a phenomenal resource for writers who are just starting out or who need an extra dose of motivation to keep going. Check out GoinsWriter.com for more information about Jeff Goins and his new eBook.
I received this book for free for review from the author, and the opinions contained in this review are completely my own
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
My Review of THE INTROVERTED LEADER by Jennifer Kahnweiler
As many people with introverted personalities have discovered, it can be really difficult sometimes to be an introvert in a clearly extroverted world. Overall, being outgoing is viewed as an asset, and being quiet and introspective is viewed as a weakness. Extroverts are often viewed as the natural leaders, and introverts don’t often show up on the radar of someone considering someone for a leadership position. Not to mention that introverts are often misjudged as antisocial. I love people, I love being around people, and I love investing in people, but I can’t say it comes naturally for me or that I’m at ease being around people. Often, my introverted personality causes me to be very self-conscious, and the things I want to communicate to people I genuinely care about become very difficult to verbalize. The frustration for me, as I’m sure it is for a lot of introverts, is that I care deeply about people, I’m very interested in people and what makes them tick, but introversion often feels like a force fighting against that. After reading Susan Cain’s groundbreaking book on introverts QUIET, I became interested in another book called THE INTROVERTED LEADER by Jennifer Kahnweiler.
THE INTROVERTED LEADER is ironically written by an extrovert, but an extrovert who has gone to extra care to understand the introvert personality and discover methods for introverted personalities to express what’s inside more effectively. Kahnweiler takes a look at some common challenges that introverts face in a workplace world, nearly all of which I resonated with. Not all introverts struggle in the same ways with living in an extroverted world, so Kahnweiler gives a quiz to help isolate specific areas an introvert might want to engage in becoming more comfortable in, thus producing results.
The book focuses on a four-step process introverts can put into practice. The four steps are:
1. Prepare
2. Presence
3. Push
4. Practice
Essentially, in several different areas, such as public speaking or managing people, where introverts may struggle with being effective, Kahnweiler walks them through a process of creating lasting and effective habits through the four steps.
THE INTROVERTED LEADER is empowering and practical in a way that will hopefully allow introverts to contribute more effectively their inherent giftedness as leaders.
I received this book for review from Berrett-Koehler Publishers
THE INTROVERTED LEADER is ironically written by an extrovert, but an extrovert who has gone to extra care to understand the introvert personality and discover methods for introverted personalities to express what’s inside more effectively. Kahnweiler takes a look at some common challenges that introverts face in a workplace world, nearly all of which I resonated with. Not all introverts struggle in the same ways with living in an extroverted world, so Kahnweiler gives a quiz to help isolate specific areas an introvert might want to engage in becoming more comfortable in, thus producing results.
The book focuses on a four-step process introverts can put into practice. The four steps are:
1. Prepare
2. Presence
3. Push
4. Practice
Essentially, in several different areas, such as public speaking or managing people, where introverts may struggle with being effective, Kahnweiler walks them through a process of creating lasting and effective habits through the four steps.
THE INTROVERTED LEADER is empowering and practical in a way that will hopefully allow introverts to contribute more effectively their inherent giftedness as leaders.
I received this book for review from Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Monday, April 23, 2012
My Review of CATCHING FIRE by Suzanne Collins
Photo Credit: Scholastic Press
POSSIBLE SPOILERS
For seventy-three years the Capitol of the nation of Panem held The Hunger Games, a violent fight to the death between the teenaged tributes from each of Panem’s twelve districts, as a reminder to never attempt to rise up against the merciless Capitol again. For each of the seventy-three Hunger Games, there has been only one victor. Until Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, in act of defiance against the Capitol, forced the Gamemakers to choose both of them as the victors. Now Katniss must convince the world that her act of defiance in the Games was driven by love for Peeta, or risk being the catalyst of rebellion against the Capitol. Everyone she loves is in danger. And with the punishment of participating in another Hunger Games with Peeta where only one can walk out alive looming over her, she must decide what is more important: surviving to fight the Capitol or keeping Peeta alive.
Suzanne Collins painted a world that revealed the darkest aspects of the hearts of humanity in THE HUNGER GAMES. In CATCHING FIRE, Collins continues Katniss’ story with the aftermath of Katniss’ decisions in the previous book, taking us deeper into a government system built on power, oppression and senseless killing, as well as deeper into the mind of a girl pushed beyond her limits with the fate of a nation and those she loves most resting on her shoulders.
I loved the first book. Not because of the senseless bloodbath that it depicts, but because it reflected a world desperately in need of redemption, and Katniss struggles, in a sense, to be a light in the darkness. I loved the second book even more. As the story progresses, it begins to feel like Peeta is the real hero of this story as he pours all of his energy into protecting Katniss even though she doesn’t know how she feels about him. It’s an incredible picture of unconditional love.
Collins does an incredible job of raising the stakes for the players involved. With the end of THE HUNGER GAMES, I wondered in what direction this story could go next and if it would be as captivating. CATCHING FIRE feels like you’ve been strapped in for a relentless gut-wrenching thrill ride where you’re desperately hoping the horror of it all can somehow be undone.
The villain becomes more present within the story in CATCHING FIRE as we’re given a closer look at the mysterious President Snow. The man is powerful, knows it, and will mercilessly destroy anyone who threatens that power. Collins gives a chilling description of a man who wears an aroma that is a mixture of roses and blood on his breath.
Nearly every chapter ends with somewhat of a cliffhanger, making it really hard to stop reading once you get to the end of a chapter. Once again, I loved the first-person narrative from Katniss’ perspective. Collins gives us some great descriptions of the world of Panem throughout so that imagining what it’s like is really easy. The end of the book will definitely leave wanting to get the next book and start reading immediately.
I love post-apocalyptic stories and I love trilogies. THE HUNGER GAMES Trilogy is quickly one of my favorites.
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