Rebecca McClanahan

This family memoir of life in Indiana from the last half of the nineteenth century into the current era, is one of the best pieces of creative non-fiction I have read in a long time. From family letters, diaries and keepsakes, as well as stories passed down to her, the author reconstructed the lives of three generations before her, bringing some remarkable men and women to life on the page in a style I found thoroughly engaging. McLanahan is almost exactly my age, and despite her Midwestern show more roots, and having grown up here, there and around when her father was in the Marine Corps, her own recollections feel very familiar to this Pennsyltucky girl. In describing herself, she has nailed me down as well..."There's one like me in every family, I suppose: the cemetery haunter, archive junkie, keeper of all things outdated and moldy..." I read this for the Heartland theme in the AAC, and cannot recommend it highly enough. show less

I'm so pleased with this book that it's tough to figure out where to start. The author talks about working description into our stories. She could have steered us in the direction of pages and pages of static description, yet she doesn't. She could have pushed us in the direction of tired and overused techniques, yet she didn't. Ms. McClanahan happily points out pitfalls, trite methods, and things to beware of at all stages. Her exercises back this up, helping us to subvert the expected. She show more also has a wonderful, quirky sense of humor, and uses her own advice on writing descriptively to turn what could have been a dry textbook into a beautiful and inspiring, fun-to-read book.

This book has no large margins. No space-gobbling quotes. No blank space for doing the (very helpful) exercises. No overly large font or ridiculous line-spacing. None of the traditional tricks for making writing books seem larger than they actually are. This book is every bit as thick with useful information as it looks.

The range of topics covered in this book in relation to description is phenomenal. I could spend pages listing out the topics covered (and how well they're dealt with!), such as metaphor, "bringing characters to life through description," point of view, setting, narrative, the senses, and on and on.

Whether you write fiction, non-fiction, or poetry, this book can make your writing sing. I have a better notion of where my weaknesses as a writer lie, and how I might turn them into strengths. And that's some of the highest praise I can give to a writing book! This is truly one of my favorite writing books, and it's well worth a writer's time and money to read it.

Full review at ErrantDreams show less

This book was a pleasure to read. Not only was it informative, it was well written. Although aimed more towards the literary, there is no reason why the well structured advice cannot be applied to genre fiction. In fact, genre fiction is probably where it is most needed. How many times have we read a good thriller or crime novel that keeps us turning the page because of intrigue or action, only to feel detached from the characters, or get that icky feeling when the emotion of a scene jars show more with the setting or tone? Then the novel comes across as unpolished even though it might be technically error free. This book goes beyond the nuts and bolts of writing, and for some, will open up a world of true creation and inspiration. It shows why good writing is a craft. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys writing, whether they intend to publish or not. There are multitudes of examples of the topics discussed and numerous writing exercises to help a writer develop. show less

A decent book with a lot of good advice, but man can it be long-winded at times. It starts to drag about halfway through and entirely loses focus by the end, delving into territory that's covered much better, and in greater detail, by other books.

Honestly, if this book were half as long it would've been twice as good, because the beginning is actually pretty great. I loved the section on metaphor, simile, and other figures of speech, for instance, but the absolute best thing I took away show more from this book is "the proper and special name of a thing" which is something McClanahan stole from Aristotle, though I do not begrudge her for it because she lays it out so perfectly and so clearly (and also because she flat-out admits that fact right away). It is the relatively simple and, one might think, obvious idea that naming something, properly, does more to implant the image of that thing in the reader's mind than a paragraph of description would.
That concept, and phrase, which is almost like a mantra, just clicked with me in a way that so few things do, and I will never, ever forget it. show less