Idiot's Guides: Creative Writing

by Casey Howard Clabough

Creative writing may be the ultimate form of self-expression. Whether the reader is a creative writing student or someone who feels compelled to create stories and poetry in their free time, Idiot's Guides: Creative Writing helps them master the basics of fiction and creative nonfiction and write more effectively. Readers will learn how to:

- Create the fundamental elements of good fiction of creative nonfiction, including plot, character, point of view, setting, dialogue, style, and theme.

- Write various types and genres of creative writing, including novels, short stories, plays and screenplays, poetry, book-length and article-length narrative nonfiction, memoirs, and more.

- Hone their writing skills and boost their creativity with writing prompts and exercises.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2014

Reviews

[Olga Tsygankova]

The book is more informative than instructional, there are extensive explanations of different aspects of craft, as well as of various genres, but very few practical tools. Writing prompts are mostly just questions for reflection, and not actual creative writing exercises.

The thing that I found most frustrating is that the author uses excerpts from his own writing almost exclusively throughout the book. Mostly, they do not even illustrate the aspects of the craft, for example, a piece exemplifying 2nd person POV is written in 1st person POV (which made me wonder if the author has clear understanding of what 2nd person POV means).

There are also inaccuracies, such as where he explains the difference between plot and story. The text is heavily ridden with clichés, and it goes something like this:

“As they say, (cliché). This is a cliché, but it’s just so true, I couldn’t NOT say it”. Dear author, yes, you can! If you use a cliché and then admit it, it’s still a cliché and it still gets on my nerves.

[Suzanne Arcand]

I give up! It's really bad. I'm not learning anything. I would be better of reading descriptions from Wikipedia.

The author only quotes from his on books, which are not that great. Read something else, like The Art of X-Ray Reading you will discover great novel, intelligent analysis and useful advice.

[Stephen]

Plenty of good information in this book, which is well enough structured. A good instructional work, but not the best for a few reasons. The author generally uses his own writing for examples, which is clearly easier from a copyright point of view, but it would be nice to see more examples of how the best writers are using these techniques. Also, I was not always convinced by the points being made, or how the examples were demonstrating them. The writing prompts were not always that inspiring either.

It is a solid enough work though. Worth a look, but not the best I have found.

[Rosie Sloane]

I loved this. It is light hearted and had some great tips.

[Natalie Flaherty-Verrall]

Idiot's Guide? No idiot can understand this. Yes, the book is interesting but as an idiot trying to read this, I have no clue what over half these words mean. Only read this if you're smart

[J.S. Mist]

Highly recommended! It was an easily read and it just gave me more helpful information and I have some terms to use when writing my book and the best of all is that. It gave you suggestions, nothing was set in stone and gave you the freedom to do things the way it suits your needs.

[thecostaricanreader]

A great source of reference. Well explained, a lot of writing prompts which helps a lot to understand the content and easy to read.