Featuring exercises, quotes and encouragement Your Writing Coach,2nd edition shows you how to hook readers and keep them engaged and offers powerful tips on how to stay motivated and how to transform the inner critic into a constructive guide to get past the dreaded writer's bloc. Finally, this book offers updated advice on marketing yourself and your work, on ‘getting started� and on the tremendous opportunities offered by the new media.
Jurgen Wolff is a writer and creativity and writing coach who divides his time between London and Southern California. He has taught at the University of Southern California, the Academy for Chief Executives, the University of Barcelona, the Pilots Project, and workshops around the world. He has written nine books including “Your Creative Writing Masterclass� (Nicholas Brealey Publishing), “Creativity Now!� (Pearson), “Marketing for Entrepreneurs� (Pearson), “Focus: the power of targeted thinking� (Pearson), “Your Writing Coach� (Nicholas Brealey), “Do Something Different� (Virgin � foreword by Sir Richard Branson). He has written more than 100 episodes of television, the feature film “The Real Howard Spitz� starring Kelsey Grammer, the miniseries “Midnight Man� starring Rob Lowe, two TV movies starring the Olsen Twins, been a script doctor on feature films starring Eddie Murphy, Walter Matthau, Michael Caine and others. He created the animated series, “Norman Normal� (56 episodes) and co-created the series “Lukas� (39 episodes). He teaches screenwriting at the Raindance Film Festivals and in workshops around the world. He is a NeuroLinguistic Programming practitioner, a certified hypnotherapist, and has studied improvisation with The Groundlings in Los Angeles and Keith Johnstone in London. He is currently writing “Reptile Nations,� a novel for Young Adults. His other sites include: (which includes bonuses to the book); (which includes bonus materials for the “Creativity Now� book); (with bonus material for the “Focus� book);
His writing blog is at , where he posts most days with writing news and tips. - See more at:
Дуже не вистачає тут, на goodreads, половинок зірочок для оцінки. Бо заокруглюю я практично завжди до більшого, але тут це 3,5, а не повних 4. І означає це, що приблизно половина книги - прекрасна і конструктивна, а половина - загальні фрази ні про що. Корисними є розділи, які стосуються безпосередньо письменництва - як будувати сюжет, формувати персонажів та їхні мотивації, обирати влучні деталі, вести оповідь. А от розділи про все решту дуже скидалися на пусту писанину, єдина функція якої - додати книзі об'єму. Ця інформація буде корисна хіба що повному новачку, який ніколи не цікавився деталями написання і публікації книг. Ну, і варто згадати про те, що автор базується на актуальних для нього реаліях книговидання, які далекі від наших. Але це все об'єктивні чинники, тут без претензій. Знаю, що у Вольфа є ще одна книга, де він більше уваги приділяє все-таки процесу написання, а не стадіям після. Спробую ще її :)
A very informative read about how to approach writing and publishing. But because I only read this after 10 years have lapsed since the publication of this revised edition, many of the internet links mentioned in the book are dead. Some things in the publishing world has also changed somewhat.
Still, it's a great book and will be my go-to when I start writing.
Незаслужено довго читала Вольфа, перестрибуючи час від часу на інші книжки. Але закінчивши, можу сказати, що поки що це найкращий з прочитаних мною путівників для авторів (не важливо чого). Чого в книзі немає: панібратського чи зверхнього тону, повторювання одних і тих самих тез через кожну сторінку, абстрактних порад, які невідомо як використовувати. Що в книжці є: власний, реальний досвід автора і досвід його колег по цеху на всіх етапах створення тексту, практичні вправи, легкий для сприйняття текст, безліч толкових порад. Хороша книжка.
Автор рассказывает, как структурировать историю, генерировать сюжет и много-много полезных фишек, которые помогают упростить жизнь тем, кто мечтает из простого графомана собрать рассказ или роман. А ведь все мы читая книжки нет-нет, да и задумываемся, а что если бы я написал роман? Чем я хуже.
Первая половина крутая: читаешь и делаешь закладки, пометки.
Вторую половину можно не читать. Там мотивация и маркетинг о том, как продавать себя. Классно и интересно скорее для общего развития. Ну и позволяет приоткрыть завесу в литературный бизнес. Будем откровенны - для 99% читателей данной работы инфомация бесполезна.
Jurgen Wolff has created a wonderfully different type of book for aspiring writers that seems to stem from his own successes in writing and coaching writers. Once other books have instructed you on the basics of grammar, story composition and dialogie let Jurgen take your writer brain in a new direction. This book includes great chapters about how to talk to loved ones whose negativity is dragging you down, how to visualize your inner critic as a helpful partner instead of a roadblock and how to take advantage of the plethora of media in our increasingly digital age. I definitely recommend this book for writers looking for a manual on writing that goes beyond how to put words on the page.
Didn't finish. Some tactics for old folks. Conservative kind of way. Writing isn't easy, but it isn't that kind of restricted to formal settings (cut off everybody kind of thing Wolff was describing). Not necessary and abundant, if you like to write in the middle of something why not write, why not just sit down and unwind whenever you feel like it instead of making some structure to this and writing at a certain hour. Some advice is good (probably, didn't try them out, and wouldn't care to), but still... Very questionable choice for writing help literature.
Под конец книги автор очень ударился в маркетинг и продвижение, учит вести авторов блоги и запускать писательские стартапы. Но в начале книги, даже две трети ее, наверное, � очень крепкий и полезный сборник ключевых рекомендаций по писательскому мастерству. Как разрабатывать сюжет и следовать замыслу, как прорабатывать героев, что делать с черновиками и редактурой, писательский тайм-менеджмент � много практических, ремесленных вещей, плюс в конце каждой главы краткий конспект и упражнения (выполнять стоит не все, но найти полезные точно удастся).
После курса по литературному мастерству книга пригодилась, чтобы быстренько освежить в памяти пройденное.
I thought that it had some great tips to incorporate into your writing practice as a well-known author, writing coach, and teacher he provides practical advice developing and improving your writing skills highlighting common obstacles that can be faced by writers. I enjoyed learning about the different styles of writing, giving me a clearer idea of the path I would like to explore more.
I read this book a few years ago now. Before I read it, I couldn't string a long story together. After much thought and reading it a few times I can now write novels,.and have one that's nearly finished. Cheers Jürgen!
If this is your first book youre reading on writing, and you want an overview of the process, this is a good book. However, I personally felt that there wasnt anything unique from other writing books. It is, however, good at taking a writer through the whole process.
ah... oh... meh... eh... hmm... one must love books about the act of writing to read so many of them... eeees ok... with caveats on the author’s focus on the pecuniary...
Книга совсем начальная, новое в ней будет только для тех, кто впервые читает книги такого рода. Тем не менее, все упомянутое в ней актуально и применимо.
I can't remember a time when I didn't want to be a writer. This book offered some helpful tips and guidelines to help me get started on writing. Before reading this, I have had a couple of ideas in the back of my mind, being a little afraid to put them down on paper in case of rejection but the book helped my confidence and shows how to plan your novel as well as providing some encouraging points about famous authors that you would have never have thought had problems getting their work published.
Overall I did like the book. Of course, a book of this kind will always have parts which are useless to someone. I had my share of useless chapters but I got loads of juice from other chapters. The prose of Jurgen Wolff is pleasant and light, easy to follow, addictive, to a point. A happy reader here.
This is an excellent book for a newish writer like myself offering plenty of advice and giving encouragement and experience. Quite wide ranging it also talks about what we want from life. I would certainly recommend and would come back to it. Not as inspirational as Stephen King's "On writing" but will be on my shelf for a long time. Also has an excellent website back up
This book has very specific ideas about how to help a writer. I love the online additions and guided imagery. There are some very good tips here on how to deal with practical issues a writer faces daily.
Really found this helpful in motivating me in writing myself. I found some great tips and advice in here. Although I haven't made much progress writing (my reading challenge getting somewhat in the way) I will continue to refer back to this to help me out.
После прочтения этой книги я окончательно поняла, что всю свою жизнь связывала со словом и свяжу с ним же. Я слишком люблю язык, и неважно в какой форме это будет - устно или письменно, в виде статей, видеоблога или книги. И да, ещё больше хочется написать свою книгу, много книг.