The playful way to serious writing : an anything-can-happen workbook to inspire and delight

For anyone who has ever dreaded the blank page or struggled to find something to write and then agonized over how best to write it, or has simply found writing to be hard work, The Playful Way to Serious Writing breaks down common writing barriers and frees the writer within. Drawing on extensive experience in teaching creative writing and a lifetime of free artistic expression, Roberta Allen, novelist, short story writer, and author of Fast Fiction, has created a unique book of writing exercises packed with hundreds of verbal directives and visual cues. The key, Allen says, is ENERGY, "the force behind the words, the desire to bring forth something that has never before existed." Allen's ENERGY METHOD, which focuses creativity without interruption or that nagging inner critic, can be used for any type of creative effort at any level -- stories, novels, plays, memoirs, sketches, journals, and more. Attractive, engaging, funny, and free ranging, The Playful Way to Serious Writingis more than just a writing guide -- it is an endless sourcebook of ideas and a trusted creative companion.

For anyone who has ever dreaded the blank page or struggled to find something to write and then agonized over how best to write it, or has simply found writing to be hard work, The Playful Way to Serious Writing breaks down common writing barriers and frees the writer within. Drawing on extensive experience in teaching creative writing and a lifetime of free artistic expression, Roberta Allen, novelist, short story writer, and author of Fast Fiction, has created a unique book of writing exercises packed with hundreds of verbal directives and visual cues. The key, Allen says, is ENERGY, the force behind the words, the desire to bring forth something that has never before existed. Allen's ENERGY METHOD, which focuses creativity without interruption or that nagging inner critic, can be used for any type of creative effort at any level—stories, novels, plays, memoirs, sketches, journals, and more. Attractive, engaging, funny, and free ranging, The Playful Way to Serious Writingis more than just a writing guide—it is an endless sourcebook of ideas and a trusted creative companion.

Publishers Weekly

Were a creative writing professor and a kindergarten teacher to conspire on a writing guide, it might look something like The Playful Way to Serious Writing: An Anything-Can-Happen Workbook to Inspire and Delight. In a big font that looks remarkably like a school teacher's penmanship, Roberta Allen (Fast Fiction; The Dreaming Girl) espouses the ENERGY method of finding your inner voice; it is, she says, a way to break that shell of fear, bypass the inner voice that stops you and lose yourself like a child in the magic of creating. Suspension of cynicism is required, of course: write about what an FBI agent would think of your life, or choose a letter that has the most ENERGY and pen a story featuring words starting with that letter, and Allen is there to warmly cheer you along. (Sept.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.