Writing in a Convertible With the Top Down: A Unique Guide for Writers - Softcover

Killien, Christi; Bender, Sheila

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0446393142 ISBN 13: 9780446393140

Publisher: Grand Central Pub, 1992

Synopsis

Letters between the two authors as they prepare for a writing workshop discuss such concerns as getting started writing, writer's block, meaning, the role of the unconscious, structure, and other areas

About this title

Reviews

People looking for a book that teaches how to write excruciatingly bad prose need look no further. Most of the authors' condescending advice takes the form of banal letters that sport cheery little closings like "Yours while the light is long, Sheila" and "Replanted, looking at a clear blue sky, Christi"--a tone more appropriate to Killien's children's books ( Putting on an Act , etc.) than this allegedly adult title. Getting in touch with the creative self--"exploring the cupboards of your memory"--seems to be more of a goal than producing readable prose. Poet and playwright Bender, viewing criticism with disdain, tells herself, "I must never listen to the words 'good' and 'bad.' " But since she later writes, "my friend once again, and once again not I," received an artist's grant, one might well question the shrewdness of her policy. A few writing exercises and comments on such matters as plot structure and character development appear amidst the anecdotes about berry picking and a beach holiday, but there are enough well-written guides to writing well that readers need not bother with this epistolary twaddle.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Grand Central Pub
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0446393142
• ISBN 13: 9780446393140
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 121