Larry Brooks (1) (1952–)

I want to write and, per my personality and so forth, my first step is to read books about writing. This is the second book on that subject I've read (the first I am probably going to abandon) and I've taken two online courses (with limited success, as I was putting the cart ahead of the horse.) So, this is the first book (mostly) but not my first exposure to writing advice/instruction/etc.

That said, this book was well worth the price and the time. That said, I will point out the same thing a few other reviewers have: lots of repetition, most of which I did not actually mind (repeating things for first timers is not a bad thing, and arguably not a bad thing for folks who have more experience); lots of analogies, some weaker than other, which I could take or leave, but didn't particularly bother me; and lots of "What I'm about to tell you, soon, is very important. Really important. Life changing. The thing I am going to write, that you will read, any second now, is so important. Right... about... wait for it..." that makes up 15% of the book, and which I definitely would have not missed.… (meer)

In some ways this is an oddly written book. As other reviewers have noted, it reads like an infomercial, withholding key information to the last possible moment (which is backward, by the way, from what usually works best in informative writing); and he gets caught up in one metaphor after another, usually driving at a point that's tangential to what he is purportedly talking about. If he were claiming to teach about instructional writing, I would be highly skeptical about anything he said.

However, once you sort through all this noise, he seems to have some good insights on how stories are structured, especially for a commercial audience. It's not many writers who can articulate how stories are actually crafted, and I value this book for entering that discussion. While some writers will recoil at what can come across as a formulaic approach to storytelling, I think he makes a good case that most successful stories function in similar ways, no matter what method you use to get to that finished draft.… (meer)

In some ways this is an oddly written book. As other reviewers have noted, it reads like an infomercial, withholding key information to the last possible moment (which is backward, by the way, from what usually works best in informative writing); and he gets caught up in one metaphor after another, usually driving at a point that's tangential to what he is purportedly talking about. If he were claiming to teach about instructional writing, I would be highly skeptical about anything he said.

However, once you sort through all this noise, he seems to have some good insights on how stories are structured, especially for a commercial audience. It's not many writers who can articulate how stories are actually crafted, and I value this book for entering that discussion. While some writers will recoil at what can come across as a formulaic approach to storytelling, I think he makes a good case that most successful stories function in similar ways, no matter what method you use to get to that finished draft.… (meer)