Gail Carson Levine's Writing Magic: Unlock the Power of Storytelling to Create Stories that Soar

Susan B.: I love this book! So practical, so friendly, so helpful.

United States on Apr 03, 2023

Meghan Szczebak: I am reading this book with my daughter, who is 11 and writing a historical novel as part of her homeschool project. We have a lot of writing resources, workbooks, online classes, worksheets and so on and so forth. A lot of them are too simplistic ( ex. write a sentence about something you see, hear or smell- ugh, boring), or too geared towards common core testing criteria ( ex. Do you know what hyperbole is? Let's tell you 200 different ways for 50 pages.). This book is easy enough to follow, but has a depth and richness that makes it appropriate for a wide range of ages and writing experience. Actually useful.

United States on Jun 05, 2021

Kenn Caesius: Perhaps the most honest and concise introduction to fiction writing – at least for the young adults bitten by the writing bug. With only cursory knowledge of who Gail Carson Levine was, I purchased the book on her professional contribution and was pleasantly surprised by her effective and intimate approach to writing. While somewhat patronizing to the pre-teens it is intended to, it is nevertheless a worthy read by anyone who would like to get into writing short stories.

Writing Magic is writing and advice guide by fantasy author Gail Carson Levine who combines her professional and personal writing experience. Best known for her first published book, Ella Enchanted, was written after a series of published works which adds to her credibility. Across 30 chapters and little less than 200 pages, Mrs. Levine takes the reader across the world of writing (primarily for entertainment) providing simple explanations to important elements of a good story such as character building, world-building, conflict, dialogue, writer's block, etc. Accompanying each chapter is comparable writing prompts to encourage the reader to just simply write, and hopefully start on a long journey of...

United States on Mar 03, 2020

LL: Excellent material to inspire young writers

Canada on Feb 20, 2020

Michelle Cornish: This is written for young writers but it should be required reading for all writers, especially those wanting to write children's books or fantasy. The writing prompts are amazing and I love how Gail ends every chapter with "save your work"! Highly recommended!

Canada on Mar 27, 2019

Linda Paradis: I loved the whole book. The session Gail wrote on publishing was very helpful.
I gave an outline at the weekly writers group I attend, and now several are wanting to also read it.
I do plan to reread it several more times.
Linda

Canada on Mar 13, 2019

Theodore: It's honestly a shame I didn't run into this book when I was much younger and at the beginning of my writing career. I probably would have devoured and adored this book back then. As it was, I ended up being perhaps a bit old for the target audience and far too familiar with practical writing advice. So I ended up mostly just nodding along and not learning anything new.

Still, it's Gail Carson Levine, and she writes in such a fun and engaging way that I still ended up reading the whole thing anyway. If that's not a testament to her skill, I'm not sure what is. Something about her writing is just engaging and soothing all at once.

I may not be the perfect target audience for this book at this point in my life, but I can at least recognize the help it could provide to someone who IS in the right demographic. If I run into any young budding writers who need a word of encouragement, I'll be quick to give them this as a gift.

United States on Oct 28, 2018

Stella Carrier: As a grown and happily married woman who is blessed to juggle my writing interests with a prosperous career I’m rationally and intuitively aware that I am outside the target audience for this kindlebook. However, I am in the process of using writing as a tool to cross train myself skillwise and sharpen my creativity and I fortunately came away with some ideas for doing both because of some of the following in this kindlebook; A Running Start with one of the fun writing prompts It was a witchy house, why it is helpful to save what you write for up to 15 years ideally if possible regardless of how you feel about the writing creation, why she wrote this kindlebook, other writing prompts such as an idea to write a fictional book about Jane Austen, a getting into it chapter and an example given through a story about a baker, some more creative writing prompts such as imagining a magical drink, imagining a hearing aid that allows the wearer to hear anything on earth no matter how distant, and much more.

United States on Oct 01, 2017

scourge: This is a superb book on writing and although written primarily for children or young adults it is equally relevant for adults. It covers the same ground that much longer books on the subject which are written for adults but in an accessible manner and with considerable brevity. I can't recommend it highly enough and believe that every teacher of English should own a copy.

United Kingdom on May 08, 2017

Lumeha Ash: Bien entendu, Writing Magic : Creating Stories That Fly ne vous donnera pas les clés pour devenir un excellent auteur en deux leçons et trente secondes. Bien entendu, ce n'était pas le but de l'auteur (ni le mien en achetant ce livre ;) ...) mais autant le préciser dès le départ !

Mais ce petit livre, plein d'humour, regorgeant d'exercices d'écriture, de créativité, est un livre qui vous donne envie de vous (re)mettre à l'écriture, parce que Gail Carson Levine se base sur son expérience, nous donne des exemples, n'hésite pas à dire qu'elle même à cru faire des trucs nazes... et alors? Son premier conseil est de garder tout ce que vous écrivez, peu importe la qualité.

Il y a plusieurs conseils sur la narration, l'auteur livre des conseils intéressant. Bien entendu, il faut réadapter ça aux spécificités de la langue française, mais cela coule très bien ;)

L'anglais n'est pas tellement difficile à comprendre. De plus, la façon dont Gail Carson Levine écrit nous met tout de suite dans une ambiance sympathique. Elle nous écrit comme elle écrirait à une bonne connaissance. On a tout de suite envie d'en savoir plus. De continuer, de...

France on Oct 11, 2009