Rating: 
Summary: A Good Book to Jumpstart Your Writing and More...
Review: Anne Bernay's and Pamela Painter have done a good job in giving writers many different kinds of options to jumpstart your writing. I especially like the way the invite you to go beyond your own story and into the characters as well as encouraging the writer to take chances with their own emotions and write from sometimes scary places. I think doing this results in a huge payoff for the writer and puts the writer squarely in the creative journey.
There are lots and lots of exercises that approach the writing journey from different points of view. Good for all levels of writers and also a keeper. I think if you are a beginner you'll get something and then if you look back into the pages and redo these exercises in time, you'll get even more out of them
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic book for teaching students how to write creatively
Review: Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter's "What If?," a collection of writing exercises for fiction writers provides excellent exercises that can be used in the classroom, especially with high school students. Such exercises help students free their creative minds thereby making them better expository writers. Such exercises as "journey of the long sentence" and "practice writing good, clean prose" have been especially useful in teaching students how to be clear, concise writers. It has been difficult finding another fiction writing exercise book that equals this one
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic book for teaching students how to write creatively
Review: Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter's "What If?," a collection of writing exercises for fiction writers provides excellent exercises that can be used in the classroom, especially with high school students. Such exercises help students free their creative minds thereby making them better expository writers. Such exercises as "journey of the long sentence" and "practice writing good, clean prose" have been especially useful in teaching students how to be clear, concise writers. It has been difficult finding another fiction writing exercise book that equals this one
Rating:
Summary: Beginning Writers Now Know Where to Turn!!!
Review: I am a beginning writer with very little experience. This book, along with "Writing Down the Bones"(Natalie Goldberg) and "The Art of Fiction"(John Gardner), is an absolute must if you want to write satisfying and realistic stories.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring Exercises
Review: I am a young writer that lives overseas, where it is hard to find a creative writing workshop. This book proves to be a terrific reference again and again- its exercises are inspiring, quick and self-explanatory, and are full of hints for improving your writing. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking to improve their writing... you will find it invaluable!
Rating: 
Summary: Not for advanced writers
Review: I bought this book hoping to find some new exercises that would help me expand my skills. But I found most of them too basic for my tastes. This book might be good for people who are just learning to flex their writing muscle. But for anyone who has been writing for a few years, don't bother.
Rating:
Summary: Not for advanced writers
Review: I bought this book hoping to find some new exercises that would help me expand my skills. But I found most of them too basic for my tastes. This book might be good for people who are just learning to flex their writing muscle. But for anyone who has been writing for a few years, don't bother.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad...if you write short stories.
Review: I bought this book, hoping to get some creative help with novels I was interested in writing. I was misinformed on what this book was actually good for.This book is more geared toward writing short stories, not novels, although the creative aspect could be used in either. I, being a novelist, wanted something that was mainly geared toward the novel, thus I was a bit disappointed. I've written some short stories with it, so if that's your aim, by all means this is a pretty good book. I can't rate it higher than 3 stars because I don't use it for much.
Rating:
Summary: When you really get serious about that novel...
Review: I didn't really believe this book would help my writing, but after doing just four of the exercises I want to go back and rewrite almost every story I wrote in the last year. I can see so many points where they could have easily been improved. I'm excited now, and I can't wait to do more. This looks like a great book for those of us who absolutely can't or won't get to writing classes or workshops. If you can get one or two other writers to work through the book with you, it will be even more effective - one thing a book can never give you is feedback.
Rating:
Summary: For younger audiences
Review: I found the exercises and patronizing tone in most of the contributors' articles to be sophomoric and borderline juvenile. Only one or two of the exercises were helpful or interesting. I was hoping for some authorial expertise, and instead got a compendium of shopworn notes and examples from CW class teachers and students. My guess is the novice students who had their examples printed are the happiest purchasers of this flimsy book. It would be better to buy Jerome Stern's "Shapes of Fiction" or even Goldberg's "Writing Down the Bones" if you are a grown-up writer looking for some help.
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