Spilling Ink
A Young Writer's Handbook

I was child writer. Which is to say, I was one of those kids who wrote endless stories between the ages of nine and fourteen or so. Of these stories, I finished only one. And I remember taking a writing class over a summer once that I enjoyed, but otherwise I didn't have a lot of direction when it c......more

Good grief. I have 10 pages of notes on this book. Don't worry, I won't put you to bed with a long review, but the great phrases, advice, and lesson ideas had me paraphrasing oodles of sections. Speaking of "oodles," it is a word I've been hooked on lately. Go ahead, say the word. Now get a good gob......more

This is a really great book, it has a lot of great advice for beginning writers. I wish I had read it when I was first starting out but, by now, I didn't really feel it applied to me. Still a great read and I'm glad for it, just not quite what I'm looking for.......more

Though Spilling Ink is a book written for younger audiences, the appealing and almost interactive handbook created by Mazer and Potter is perfect for any youth who want to write fiction. It is full of useful advice on dialogue, plot, characterization, and description. Using bizarre chapter titles an......more