What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers, Second Edition

Rating:
Summary: Useful tool in the classroom
Review: I like What If quite a lot. Although you can't design a class around the book, the exercises contained therein are useful supplements in the creative writing workshop. Something for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Exercises Galore
Review: If you did one exercise a day from Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter's "What If?" you would be writing for more than a third of a year. The book is packed with 115 exercises. The goal of a writer is to write, preferably every day. This book not only provides exercises, it also includes discussions of writing before each exercise to teach the skills necessary to become a good writer. Bernays and Painter finish off their book with 24 short stories, from a variety of authors, to provide the reader with examples of the lessons.

The book is split up into fifteen different sections (two of these are devoted to the short stories and short-shorts), each with several exercises. Each section discusses a particular part of story writing including, beginnings, plot, POV, characterization, dialogue, styles and rewrites. I found the majority of the exercises useful, and nearly all of the lessons and discussions worthwhile. There where even a few "Ah-ha!" exercises that instantly solved, or gave me ideas on how to tackle, a problem that I'd been dealing with.

This book can be used in two ways. The first is to use it to strengthen your weaknesses. If you feel that your writing is lacking in a certain area, you can focus entirely on the lessons and exercises to improve that area. The second way to use this book is to read it straight through for the lessons and advise while using the exercises to further your writing. Either way, I believe that any writer will find "What If?" a useful tool.

Rating:
Summary: Better than jumper cables
Review: This is a good one - witty and readable, with substance on every page, very good exercises and many valuable comments on craft from outstanding fiction writers. After reading about half of it, I wanted to quit my job and start writing a novel right then, but that's not an option, so I settled for reading it straight through and am now going through it a chapter at a time, doing the exercises in the order they are presented. Bernays and Painter are both obviously wonderful teachers, and for those of us who don't have access to classrooms like theirs, this generous and encouraging text is the next best thing. One caution: This isn't a book for any writer who isn't planning to work at it!