Thursday, December 8, 2011

Book Review: Writing Your Way by Julie Smith

Do you ever wish you had a knowledgeable and helpful mentor sitting by your side as you write? Having Writing Your Way: The Great American Novel Track by Julie Smith with you is the next best thing.

Broken down into seven different sections, this book takes you through the craft of writing, showing examples from Mark Twain, Stephen King, Herman Melville and other famous authors, and even a few from her own writing, to bring you through topics every writer needs to know about.

Compiled from many of her classes, Writing Your Way is like having your own writing coach at your finger tips. Aunt Julie, as she calls herself, discusses the three rules of writing, voice, viewpoint, plot, character, setting, research, finding your method, marketing, and more. She spends a good deal of time dissecting Twain's The Adventures of Huck Finn, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Melville's Moby Dick, and other classics, plus she provides resources like Strunk and White's Elements of Style--see it right over on my shelf--and Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird--see it on another of my bookshelves. Each chock full chapter ends with a Takeaway that summarizes that chapter's lessons.

I'll definitely be referring to Writing Your Way again. With her conversational style and spot on advice, it's no wonder Smith is such a prolific writer.


Title:  Writing Your Way: The Great American Novel Track
Author:  Julie Smith
Publisher:  booksBrimble
ASIN: B005EZ3JM2

SRP:  $4.99


I received a FREE Kindle version of this book from the author in exchange for my honest opinions. I received no monetary compensation of any kind for this review.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a wonderful book to add to the bookshelf.

Ramblini said...

Thanks a million for the kind review, Cheryl! (This is Julie,using my online name)

Cheryl said...

Thanks Susanne. It really is.

Thanks for stopping by, Julie. Feel free to use any blurbs you need to promote your book. I also posted it on Amazon and Goodreads.