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Feedback 2010-07-05

Reviewer: Ron Day

Well laid out, easy to read. Because I am not a beginner in this area I found some of the text a little simplistic but I realise it would be of benefit to someone just beginning to write creative non fiction. I got most from the examples at the back of the book.

You can do alot better 2009-12-09

Reviewer: Michael J. Wycklendt

This is a complete waste of money. The book i read the day before i read this was phenomenal: Writing Life Stories: How to make memories into memoirs, ideas into essays, and life into literature. It really is the best craft book i've ever come across, no contest. The excersies in it are creative, fun and (most of all) extremely helpful when it comes to figuring out what your weakness is AND THEN how to overcome them. You will get none of that in AoCN. There is little 'warning' about what can derail your writing. And there is, seriously, NOTHING that takes that next step and teaches you to overcome something you may realize you are not good at.

There is simply not enough valuable content in Gutkind's book to warrent a full reading. I had to force myself to finish it, hoping that I would learn something new. That did not happen.

What bothered me most was that this author spends WAY too much time explaining the books and essays he has written. He threw in an incredibly long excerpt from one of his books, and then gives about three paragraphs of information of why reading his excerpt should have taught me something. I couldn't believe this guy threw in a section about ego in the midst of this nearly shameless advertising of his own works. This book comes off as a guy bragging about his own work. This book does not encourage the reader to do much of anything, whereas the other book i referenced above makes you want to dive in and do the excersises for months on end because the book gets you so fired up to write, on top of that, it gets you fired up to practice getting better on your flaws as a writer--it gets you fired up to continue learning, not simply 'wow, I want to get down to writing my memoir this second!'

I'm a lucky guy, in that i can afford to 'miss' with some of the books I buy, but there are just too many other books out there that destroy this one. What I'm angry about losing the most is the aderal I wasted by taking it before i read this book, and that may have been the only reason I was able to finish it.

The Art of Creative NonFiction- 2 Thumps Up 2008-06-17

Reviewer: Pule Nong

Lee Gutkind did justice to this book. Almost every advice you would need to help you write good essays, books articles,etc. My writing skills have tremendously improved after i read this book.The Art of Creative Nonfiction: Writing and Selling the Literature of Reality (Wiley Books for Writers Series)

GREAT book 2008-06-16

Reviewer: Seven Kitties

I am using this book for a class on literary journalism. To be frank, there aren't a lot of choices out there for this class--there's a lot of the other kind of 'creative nonfiction' stuff--memoir, personal writing, etc. I like that stuff too, but I'm trying to draw the Journalistic Line, here. This book is one of the few choices there are for my purposes, but I can see why--who could write a book much better than this? This is the Gold Standard as far as I'm concerned.

The book has a teeny-tiny reader in it (unlike most CNF books which are about 50 pages of 'craft' and 200 of 'reader') which leaves plenty of room for one to explore one's own taste. Don't have taste yet? Gutkind gives a (slightly dated but not much) list in the book of great places to start. If you grab this book and any of the good anthologies of creative nonfiction or literary journalism (I use _Art of Fact_) you'll soon figure out what you like or dislike. His reader is useful because he refers to it throughout the text part, and it gives a chance to see the stuff in action.

He covers everything from how to choose a topic, ethics of the genre, the position of the self (echoing my opinion that in LJ, it's not about *you*!) and form. It's amazing that a book that covers so much could be so cheap! I've seen $90 doorstop-texts with less content. And though it has no exercises in the book, per se, it's easy enough to use it as a follow along guide that will be a companion through many years of writing.

If you're just interested in the genre, or need the scoop from the Disciple of Creative Nonfiction (he edits a journal of the same name, as well as a new, yearly anthology), and words from a man who practices what he preaches, this is a wonderful book.

Understanding intimately how things work. 2001-12-08

Reviewer:

A clown for Ringling Brothers, an assistant in liver and heart transplantation surgeries, a baseball umpire, a motorcyclist and a participant in psychotherapy: When it comes to having the experience necessary to write interesting essays, Lee Gutkind is ahead of the game. In his textbook "The Art of Creative Nonfiction : Writing and Selling the Literature of Reality," Gutkind uses his passion for the written word and the experiences that inspire it to assist beginning creative nonfiction writers in their quest to share life through writing.

Covered in the book's outline-reminiscent chapters are instructions on interviewing, fact checking, finding ideas, creating dialogue and keeping story files. Straying from the norm of "interesting... [and] accurate," Gutkind stresses that the most important requirement of a creative nonfiction writer is passion- "A passion for the written word, a passion for the search and discovery of knowledge, and a passion for... understand[ing] intimately how things in this world work." In the following chapters, he offers advice on what creative nonfiction is (the relation experiences, often subjective) and is not (encyclopedia truth) in a concise yet affable manner.

Peppered with brief works from other writers used as illustrations of his suggestions, "The Art of Creative Nonfiction" is a solid, friendly text for beginning writers and an excellent stepping stone into the world of writing for a career.