Metro: Journeys in Writing Creatively

Rating:
Summary: Metro: A New Standard
Review: Metro is exactly the kind of text that meets the needs of multi-genre creative writing courses, which are the ones offered at the introductory or beginning level and in which students are exploring the various genres and the craft of writing. Metro explores with them and covers all of the concerns and issues brought forth by students and addresses them realistically. I would tell colleagues that, with Metro, you have a co-teacher.

Metro's major strengths are the breadth of its exercises, its chapter on reading, and the "Alternative Guided-Writing Scenarios." My favorite chapter is the one on reading because it adds a crucial dimension to any discussion of the writing process, especially in the context of multi-genre creative writing courses, where students are getting perhaps their first introduction to the whole notion of creative writing. It solidly dispels the too-common perception that "creative writing" happens in a vacuum and the mistaken idea that influence is a surrender that leads to slavish imitation.

Metro sets a new standard for books on the creative writing process.