Writers Gym: Exercises And Training Tips For Writers

by Eliza Clark

Motivated by her own experiences as a writer and as a workshop leader, Eliza Clark has conceived a creative-writing book focused on quick and simple exercises—an inspirational kick-start to help writers practise and improve by getting their creative juices flowing. With contributions in the form of interviews, tips, and fiction exercises from some of the best writers working today, this is an essential book for both the novice and seasoned pro.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published June 5, 2007

About the author

Eliza Clark is a Canadian writer.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from York University in 1985. She now works steadily as a television producer/director, fiction writer and story editor for both text and film. Clark has also taught creative writing at Ryerson University, the Humber School for Writers and York University.

Reviews

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Agree with Gail's comment. (Including re: "including yours truly) :)

Have boxed off several ideas that I think will be worthwhile trying.

Thanks, Gail.:)

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

A terrific writing guide full of strange and wonderful advice from many of Canadian's best authors (including yours truly). I've given it to many writers as a gift.

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

How I Came To Read This Book: Libraries are really hip now. Or perhaps they're ahead of the curve. Either way, I used the 'tag' system on my library's digital search service to track down different types of books I'd be interested in, including those 'on writing' and this book popped up.

The Plot: Eliza Clark pulls together a whole slew of anecdotes, interviews, ideas, writing exercises, and novel improvement suggestions in this diverse collection meant to improve writing and guide authors. There's also a section in the back sort of meant for writing workshop or writing course instructors for specific, group-based exercises - however someone at home could easily adapt a number of them to try out.

The Good & The Bad: Surprisingly, of the more advice-oriented sections, my favourites were the interviews. I don't know I've ever paid much attention to author interviews before, but perhaps they were a little more candid here. I just felt they gave me a lot more to go by than 'my top 5 tips'. In terms of the exercises, I think I enjoyed the ones that actually challenged me to write something new or in a different way, rather than ones that told me to rewrite or analyze part of a novel I've (supposedly) already written. The former reminded me of activities I used to do in creative writing classes which was cool. That being said, having the latter mixed in there makes for a good balance depending on what you're looking for from this book. I'd definitely consider buying this book to have on my shelf for future inspiration and activities (although I typed out a good number I haven't been able to try owing to my lack of computer) but it didn't *quite* live up to my expectations somehow.

The Bottom Line: A nice book to pull down from the shelf here and there.

Anything Memorable: My computer died literally right before this book came to my local library. Torture. I have a notebook with a few different exercises scrawled in it.

50-Book Challenge: Book #37 in 2009.

[Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of essays and interviews on writing, interspersed with more concrete writing-class-style exercises. There are submissions from a variety of writers so the book is a bit of a mixed bag: some of the stuff was funny and insightful and some fell kind of flat. Alas, nobody offered up the trick to finishing a novel without actually having to *write* it, though. I guess I'll have to keep looking.

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains little essays and writing exercises. I loved the sheer number of people who contributed to this collection- Margaret Atwood, Aimee Bender, Steven Hayward, Greg Hollingshead, Priscilla Uppal etc.

There are some great exercises in here. I look forward to using some of them the next time I teach a class/workshop.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good writer's book full of interesting words from interseting people. For me, it fell short of great due to the overwhelming number of exercises provided from these various sources. I don't consider that many idea that useful, particularly when many of them boil down to, "Isolate yourself to writing 200 words about a cereal box cover/white pages ad/tv commercial." Also, the last section is directed at writing groups of some description which probably isn't useful for many.

[Chris]

Zoe Whittal recommends this book. " is a very practical book with exercises and training tips by published writers."

[Jamie Maltman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really good ideas for exercises from a variety of authors, especially for writer groups.

[Creig Sigurdson]

I liked how it help me with my block and gave me great story ideas.

[Tims · Rating 5 out of 5]

A useful book for a beginner writer, like myself. A range of easy to follow tips and suggestions.