one-day workshop in a book
923709
This is an entertaining and enlightening read for those who enjoy yoga.  The main character signs up for a one-day yoga workshop when she feels like her life is falling apart.  The reader is along for the ride as the main character experiences four different yoga practices.

The one thing I didn't like about the book is that the yoga teacher changes clothes for each session. This was so anti-yoga.  In the all-day workshops I've taken, they've never done that.  This one detail cheapened the book's message.
3556801
Writing one book in 21 days is a huge undertaking. Writing two? Well, that's just insane, right? But our author did it while continuing on with his real life (night classes, family obligations, etc). I haven't read the B&B how-to book but this one, which chronicles his 21-day writing journey, truly is seriously funny. I've finished one book project and am working on another (neither in 21 days!) and I totally enjoyed (and could relate to) Glen Stanford's book production experience.
4639123
I haven't submitted any fiction picture books in a couple of months, which is unusual for me. I've posted here about some of my revision thoughts and efforts, and I also wanted to share a resource and an idea.

The resource is Linda Ashman's book The Nuts and Bolts Guide to Writing Picture Books. Linda is a wonderful picture book writer whose work I admire. Twice I've been told by editors my work reminded them too much of a certain other author whom they already published. Once it was Douglas Florian, and the other time it was Linda Ashman. I was flattered both times. Anyway, you might know that Lisa Bullard and I have a book called Picture Books the Write Way, which addresses 10 of the most common problems picture book writers have. I love that book and am proud of it! BUT if you're wondering about picture books and how to get started writing one, Linda's book is the one you want. It takes you through all the basics, as promised, in a friendly, unintimidating but informative way, using plenty of examples to demonstrate various qualities or aspects of picture books.

In fact, even if you are already writing picture books regularly, I recommend Linda's book. It's funny, because I did not learn any brand new information in the book, but Linda's way of organizing her info and thinking about different aspects of picture books helped me see some of my own manuscripts in a new light. The Building a Story chapter was the one that I personally got the most out of. That's always the way with good books or presentations. It might not be something new. But it helps you see something in a new WAY.

Combining this book with a spreadsheet analysis of plot structures of some of my favorite picture books helped me come to a better understanding of where my own manuscripts were falling short and, more importantly, how to fix it.

I'm excited to say I wrote a brand new picture book manuscript early this week and took it to my crit group on Tuesday. And they did not criticize the structure! The plot itself worked (though of course there's plenty of work yet to do on characterization, word choice, etc. But the structure of the book is sound. I feel like this is a milestone in my journey to selling a fiction picture book. Thank you, Linda, and thank you to the authors whose picture books I've been analyzing!
4891002
I really like this book a great deal.  I work for Amazon, and ran across it one day while packing.  It has a lot of useful ideas, and I have been inspired to play around with writing.
2240262
I got this book the way I get so many books: It was hawked by one of the big book newsletters as a free or discounted book. It has a catchy title and cute cover and cost almost nothing. Why not? Also, it's been brought to my attention that my own writing could use a little more structure. Or, maybe a lot of structuring. I needed a book like this. I began to read. Right away, I almost stopped reading it. Why?

A writer needs a positive attitude and sense of authority to write nonfiction. This author certainly has them. She uses her own work and that of famous writers to illustrate her methods. This is good, but the way she framed her use of her own work irritated me like crazy. I'm paraphrasing, but it sounded like, "My publisher asked if I could get my book done in three weeks. Of course, I could, I had it outlined and ready. Just looking at the outline made me smile " On and on about how she used her techniques for her own books and how great they were. The tone would have been fine if her name was Stephen King. Or Diana Gabaldon. Or any famous author. Except that those don't sound like that writing about their work. Stephen King's masterpiece On Writing is a gift to all authors. He sounds humble, in all his success and experience. This author didn't come across like that. The word "hubris" comes to mind.

Nevertheless, I really found her book useful. It's about 99 pages; a size anyone can relate to and put to use. In my earlier attempts at organizing myself, I bought a SYSTEM with book, workbook, CDs, maybe even DVDs, to help authors outline their work. I could not use this gargantuan thing at all. This book is simple and presents key concepts in a way that even I could use them. I just finished a novel, the first in which I have attempted any sort of outlining. I didn't do it exactly as presented here, but it came out more quickly and easily than its predecessors. We'll see what my editor says. That's the test of fire. I do recommend this book. If the author could attend to the issues I raise, I'd gladly look at more of her other nonfiction.
1507419
This book is very helpful if you do the Artist's way morning pages.  In fact, if you are not doing this, I'm not sure what else you would use this book for.
I gave it a 4 only because the number of pages for each week were off and it was an awkward book to write in.  Other than that it was great.
GIVES YOU AN IDEA OF WHAT THE AUTHOR INTENDED FOR 3 PAGES OF WRITING
When you do the Artist's way journaling, it states you should do 3 pages of writing per day.  This book gives you a sense of what the author meant as 3 pages.  By the way 3 pages this size took me not the 15-30 minutes the author implied, but more like 45 minutes to 1 hour.  It could also be the morning grogginess too.
I get up at 5:15AM to do these.
NOT ENOUGH PAGES FOR EACH WEEK PLUS A CHECK-IN:
As this book is by the same author that did the Artist way 12-week program, I am surprised that the number of pages provided did not meet the authors requirement.  Per week you should have at least 21 pages and then 1-2 pages for a weekly check in. I found that I often wrote into the following week though I never wrote over 3 pages/day nor more than a 1 page per check in.  23 pages per week should be what the author provided as a minimum.
BOUND-BACK MADE IT AWKWARD TO WRITE AT TIMES:
This book would be better as a spiral bound book, so that you could fold back the areas you did not need.  At times in the AM, it was all I could do to write much less trying to hold the book open.
INSPIRATIONAL SAYINGS EACH DAY PERTAINING TO THAT WEEK WAS NICE:
The author paraphrazed the Artist's way book providing page numbers as well, each day.  That was nice. It often helped to get my writing jumpstarted.
SUGGESTION TO THE AUTHOR:
As you recommend to your readers to continue the morning pages a follow on set of books would be handy with the same type of inspirational phrases each day. Buying this book again with the unmatched set of pages and difficulty to hold open, does not appeal to me.
This program is a good one and I plan to continue the morning pages.  It is a very useful thinking practice.
2989973
wonderful book.  love the pictures & instructions.  It's like taking a rep weave workshop
393594
Good information. Good guide. Don't expect any one book to make you an author. It takes lots of work, writing, editing, rewriting, editing, rewriting again. Keep it up. Set a goal for a minimum # of words that you will write every day, with a minimum of 500 or you just won't be writing enough to learn and grow and complete anything.
1018314
I love this book.  The ideas are things you can easily implement in your class the very next day without an extra effort.
3075032
A workbook that helps you absorb universal principles.

THe best way is to work on one page a day, and repeart the previous last ones.
4971449
I'm constructing a 12 session workshop for members of the Academy of Lifelong Learning in Toronto.  There are 2 presentations a session, prepared by the participants, so a range of material to refer to is important. We'll cover the history of the English Language as well as all the other Englishes that participants may be interested in, including American and Caribbean English and the changes brought by the internet and social media.  I know John McWhorter has many other books but this one especially will fit right in and add wit and enjoyment.
3133360
The book is set up as 9 do-it-yourself experiments.  I tried the first one and it didn't work, so I skipped the rest of them.  The premise of the book is that our thoughts are powerful and able to shape our reality.
2269447
I thought this was a pretty good book for a first time self-published author. The author starts with the critical point about the book cover design - potential reader must be able to read the title of the book when they are looking at thumbnail.  One might design a beautiful cover and only later realize that it is impossible to read the title when the image is displayed as a thumbnail.  This is a critical point that will save a new book designer a lot of time.

The author also makes a case for making the book cover look similar to other books in the same genre.  One might be tempted to differentiate yourself by doing something unique, but the book warns that the target audience is looking for a certain look and designing a different looking cover is risky.

The books uses a tutorial style to show a creation of a book cover from concept to the final product.  It shows how to use Canva for those who do not want to use photo editing software. For those who want to use photo-editing is demonstrate GIMP in combination with Amazon cover template.  The book goes over making the front cover, the back cover, as well as the spine.

I thought the book had an effective way to demonstrate the entire process.

Ali Julia review
250433
Nina Amir, the author of How to Blog a Book, has a new release out titled, Creative Visualization for Writers: An Interactive Guide for Bringing Your Book Ideas and Your Writing Career to Life . In this interactive book, writers will find over 100 exercises designed to get your creative juices flowing, move beyond writers block (if you have it), and stretch your mind. In other words, this is a book that gives you permission to be a little eccentric, weird, over the top and encourages you to be more creative than maybe you have ever been in your life. Its a book we writers have been looking for because we have already read many of the fantastic books about the writing crafthow to construct sentences, when to begin a novel, and what to use instead of adverbs. 

So how is this book set up? Theres a short foreward from Dinty W. Moore, and then an introduction from Nina, where she exclaims, Become a visionary, and explains how the brain works, including a diagram of the left and right brainmost of us know that creative people spend a lot of time in the right side of their brain. Nina says that in this book the exercises help you to use both sides of your brain. Basically shes encouraging you to get out of the limits we all seem to set for ourselves when we say: I cant or Im too busy or Im stuck. What writer doesnt need something like this book in their lives?

After the intro, she gets into the exercises. You will want to buy a print copy of this workbook, in my opinion, because the pages are full of questions and activities; space is provided for you to write down your answers and ideas. There are even writing-themed coloring pages (I know some of you are going to get this book just because of that!) and affirmation pages, where you can write down how you are a successful author or how you promote your work well. She quotes Muhammad  Ali, who said, Its the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.

The exercises are grouped into themes: Self-Exploration, Vision, Goals, Creativity, and Focus.
3502099
I'm only two days into using this book, but already I'm loving it! I've shown my daughters this book and now they each want one too, to work on it with me. The 1st day is simply drawing different kinds of lines. I ended up with a ton of ideas, and never realized how simple it can be to spruce up a page with just some fun lines. I also love that each day's practice only takes about 15 minutes, making it easier to fit it in to my super busy days.
3732588
Maybe "How to gather information and throw it into a word processor in preparation for writing a book worth selling". or "How to write a crappy book in 72 Hours" One in a billion people could possibly write an authentic, proofed, copy edited, well written book in a weekend. This book is a nice little guide to write a how-to book. But write something you'd be proud of in a weekend? Unless your standards are in the toilet, sure, you can do it. If your dream is to get something online that looks like a book, sure. If by book, you mean an instruction guide, sure. But even those books will be garbage if produced in one weekend.

And with all the books out there on the subject of writing and publishing that could realistically help you write, this book is not worth 2.99. It's worth "Free" because it's really an advertisement for the author and his other work.

Pick this up if you can get it for free, but DON'T PAY MONEY FOR THIS.
3510684
It's definitely for 'creative' writers in the sense that she suggests a variety of formats such as short stories, poems, and plays. If you're like me and you tend to focus on one thing, like writing longer fiction, this may not be for you. What I was looking for was more like 365 prompts to get me jump-started each day, but it's really more of a how-to book with about 4-6 exercises for each 'lesson' (Description, Start in the Middle, Subtext, Recycled Poems, Lists, Haiku, etc...). The chapters are generally of either the how-to-write category or the writing techniques category, like writing description, or generating ideas from a picture or a nonsense word. For a beginning writer, student or teacher, this is a good, fun start. More experienced writers might be disappointed or even a little bored (mainly because it's things you've probably seen - or even tried - before).