Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief

by David Starkey

Outlining the basics of composing and crafting each genre, Creative Four Genres in Brief teaches you to write poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama through the use of short models in order to get you writing in all genres during a single course.

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing, School, Textbooks

400 pages, Paperback

First published December 17, 2008

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

David Starkey directs the creative writing program at Santa Barbara City College.
Among his poetry collections are Starkey's Book of States (Boson Books, 2007), Adventures of the Minor Poet (Artamo Press, 2007), Ways of Being Dead: New and Selected Poems (Artamo, 2006), David Starkey's Greatest Hits (Pudding House, 2002) and Fear of Everything, winner of Palanquin Press's Spring 2000 chapbook contest. A Few Things You Should Know about the Weasel will be published by the Canadian press Biblioasis next year.
In addition, over the past twenty years he has published more than 400 poems in literary journals such as American Scholar, Antioch Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Cutbank, Faultline, Greensboro Review, The Journal, Massachusetts Review, Mid-American Review, Nebraska Review, Notre Dame Review, Poet Lore, Poetry East, South Dakota Review, Southern Humanities Review, Southern Poetry Review, Sycamore Review, Texas Review, and Wormwood Review. He has also written two textbooks: Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008) and Poetry Writing: Theme and Variations (McGraw-Hill, 1999). With Paul Willis, he co-edited In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare (Iowa, 2005), and he is the editor of Living Blue in the Red States (Nebraska, 2007). Keywords in Creative Writing, which he co-authored with the late Wendy Bishop, was published in 2006 by Utah State University Press.

Reviews

[Janine Southard]

The author looks down on genre so much that I found myself skimming his, probably very good, writing advice.

I can't judge this book at all because it bothered and marginalized me so greatly. As a writing text, it might be great or it might be horrible. You'll have to make do with others' reviews.

[Nicolás Rodríguez Sanabria · Rating 3 out of 5]

No me termina de convencer la idea de organizarlo todo alrededor de los géneros, sobre todo para un curso introductorio, para eso está mejor el de Burroway, pero este me pareció más incisivo y más laxo. Está bien estructurado y lleno de ejemplos, se presta para el autoaprendizaje.

[Sadie Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful! Good for novice & intermediate writers. It helps to zero you in on what kind of writing you're good at. Also helps to brief you on the different types of writing. Lots of how-to ideas to help you get started writing in each genre. Decent amount of models and examples to read and critique. The writing has good flow and is easy to understand and implement. Recommend.

[Nessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty solid.

[Leslie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for a class. It was a decent beginning to the topics.

[Kateri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing ground breaking, but it was well organized. I couldn't help but notice that most of the lines I highlighted were not written by the author but quotes from other writers of note. Still, he put together a well-thought-out book with lots of good material. I recommend mostly to people who are interested in creative writing but want to know more about the variations of approach to the practice and perhaps don't know where to start...and if it's required reading for study. Keep up with your reading, kids!

[Araminta Matthews]

I reviewed this for a class I plan to teach. The only section in this book I found that differentiated this text from any other creative writing textbook was the one dedicated to 10-minute plays. Otherwise, this was generic, poorly-organized, and draws on all the same cliche writing lesson samples every other resource draws on (seriously; is there a writing book anywhere that *doesn't* use Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl?" Don't get me wrong. It's a fabulous story and I've taught it myself countless times, but it's also in every textbook I've ever lifted...)

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

We used this for my creative writing class. The author goes into a lot lengthy descriptions of the craft which I found laborious and boring. Also, I didn't particularly care for the readings included as examples. I imagine there are better creative writing textbooks out there, those that give the readings greater onus in teaching while providing as little commentary as necessary to make the point.

[Chanel Earl]

I read a lot of this for a creative writing class. I think I would have liked it better if I was new to creative writing. It is focused on writing short pieces, which isn't what I was looking for, and Starkey is opinionated about some things that I just didn't agree with. He throws out all genre fiction in one short paragraph, for example, and seems to have something against non-human characters. I thought the reading selections were often very well chosen.

[Levi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was assigned this book for a creative writing class. We only used a scattered handful of the chapters, mostly focusing on those relating to short stories. There are some good ones included as examples. Other things I found helpful in this book included the information on writing good dialogue and the differences between various points of view of narration.

[Kent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ho hum. I get more out of an instructor driven class and studying several examples from a few select authors. It's ok if you're are trying to be brief, which is apparently exactly how it's trying to market itself.

[Christine Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This classroom literature book was absolutely amazing as to thoroughly explaining different writing techniques and genres. It is well worth it's weight in gold. Examples are included within each lesson.

[kelsy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Its examples of creative writing were not the most inspiring.

[Phillip Goodchild · Rating 4 out of 5]

As others state, not dazzlingly original, but I did enjoy his organization and especially enjoyed the unit on drama: a very utilitarian view, with some good examples in that section.

[Adrienne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, general text for creative writing courses.

[Sydney | sydneys.books]

Read this for my Intro to Creative Writing course at university and I actually enjoyed myself! This book has great examples and really explains things in a way that is easy to apply and understand. No chapters put me to sleep and I didn't whine over dropping money on this book. I read it cover and cover and used it with all my assignments. Highly recommend for new writers to get used to these four genres.

[Margaret Carpenter]

Some good selections from each of the genres covered but otherwise unremarkable.