A Guide to Creative Writing

A Guide to Creative Writing is a concise, useful, and well written guide for writers and other creatives compiled and written by SJ Banham. Released in the UK 13th June 2024 (rest of the world 30th Aug), it's 216 pages and is/will be available in paperback and ebook formats. 

This is written by a prolific published writer, about her experiences in the field, to help other writers and creatives. She has an encouraging and egalitarian voice, and her recollections of starting out as a writer and being discouraged by the very people who should have been inclusive and encouraging were poignant, and could be especially important to neophyte writers who don't have the benefit of hindsight to know they can and should persevere. 

The information is arranged logically and accessibly: the benefits of handwriting (and how to get thoughts onto "paper"), projects & maintaining a habit of actually writing, exercises (for all ages), fiction (a huge and information dense chapter), nonfiction, poetry, legacy/recollection history, and a tie-together troubleshooting chapter. 

Each chapter contains numerous prompts, exercises, explanations, and guides for doing the included assignments. They're not onerous and they're open ended. In fact the author has a gentle and encouraging touch with her guidance.

Four and a half stars. It would be difficult to work through the chapters systematically and -not- see a significant improvement in the reader's ability to get coherent thoughts onto paper. It's not a "how to make a zillion dollars in publishing overnight" and doesn't claim to provide quick and easy ways to avoid putting in the work of actually -writing-.

This would be a good choice for public or school library acquisition, writing workshops, classroom instruction, readers' own self-study, or possibly gifting purposes. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.