If you’re entirely uninterested in the goals and future content of this blog, just skip ahead to the review segment.

What’s the focus of this blog?

Primarily: I want to review books that are about the craft of fiction writing. I'll be focusing on (and rating) each book's readability, quality of advice, and universal appeal.

However, I won’t just be delving into writing craft non-fiction books. Occasionally, I might drift into the realm of self-help, and every 2nd week, I will throw up a fiction review - generally a book in the fantasy genre.

With all that junk out of the way, onto the first review of the blog.

Writing Craft Review #1: Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott

Readability: 5/5

It’s one of those perfect books that seamlessly blends teaching with autobiography.

Even though she presents a significant helping of useful info about writing - little tips to make sure you do it day in, day out, the inside scoops on the publishing world, etc. - it’s never presented in a way that would ever bore you. Each word of advice has a memorable tale attached to it, which really serves to make the advice sound real. It’s the complete opposite of those dumb “10 things every writer should do” listicles. Everything that she talks about is derived from her own experience, and she makes it very easy to understand why she thinks in the way that she thinks. Brilliant.

Quality of Advice: 2/5

So I’m going to shave a few points off on this one. None of the advice is bad, per se, but a lot of it is quite generic stuff - sadly, you probably could find quite a lot of the things she talks about in one of those dumb aforementioned listicles. There certainly are plenty of small nuggets of pure gold to be found, though, but I would say that a more well-read reader of writing craft books would definitely find some of the advice a bit too familiar. For someone who’s fresh on the scene, and wants their first real take on writing, this is 5/5 advice.

Universal Appeal: 3/5

The 3/5 here is for a different reason, and it’s not really Anne’s shortcomings as a writer, or that any of the advice is subpar - it’s just that she is a specific type of writer. Anne writes slice-of-life fiction, and she does it in a way that blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction - she pulls from her own life experiences in a very big way. For writers who wish to do likewise, this book is perfect, but for anyone who writes genre fiction - fantasy/science fiction, thrillers, romance, etc - they may find that the book’s advice isn’t perfectly tailored to fit. Even then, there’s certainly plenty of universal advice that anyone who can hold a pen can use.

Final score: 3.33

Even if you’re the most learned writer ever, it’s still a very engaging read. It’s actually pretty incredible the amount of juice the book has considering how easy it is to read.

Perfect for: New, inexperienced writers, and writers of realistic fiction.

I’ll be putting out a new blog post every Monday (in theory). Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or use email subscription to be notified of my future posts. Next week I’ll be tearing apart a children’s fantasy book I absolutely loathed (you've been warned). Stay tuned!

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