< back to So You Want To Write

So You Want to Write is based on a living workshop, one that's given to hundreds of writers a year. Because the workshop is entirely interactive, it has changed over time to reflect the many different questions participating writers are asking and the newest information in the publishing world.

Critics, writing teachers, students in creative writing departments and writers who continue to study their craft in worskhops, were telling us that So You Want to Write was simply one of the best writing tools on the market. They told us that the book was personal, that it reflected real-world information about publishing, and that it explained the nuts and bolts of literature for a generation that had seen far more movies that had read books. When we sold out our entire first edition we decided that rather than simply reprint, we’d update it completely.

What’s New?

• A New Chapter on Writing Short Stories,
• A New Chapter on Writing Humor,
• An Entire Chapter on How Not to Write Like A Victim,
• A Chapter Dedicated to Choosing a Selling Title,
• A New Chapter on Genre Writing: Sci Fi, Fantasy, Mystery and Historical Fiction,
• A Chapter Detialing the Worst Career Mistakes A Writers Can Make,
• Over 30 New Exercises,
• New Examples to Illustrate Concepts,
• Updated FAQ’s to Reflect What’s Going on in Publishing Now,
• A New Chapter on the Realities of Achieving Fame,
• Plus, updates of the book’s most popular chapters on: Description, Dialog, Characterization, Research, Viewpoint, Beginnings.

Don't Take Our Word for It. Hear What People Are Saying About the Book:

"SO YOU WANT TO WRITE  is a lively, informative, and down-to-earth guide for anyone who's ever thought of writing and publishing a novel, story, or personal memoir.  It answers all the questions you  may have—as well as many you didn't think of!"

-- Alison Lurie, Pulitzer Prize Winning Novelist, Professor of English & Creative Writing at Cornell University


Marge Piercy and Ira Wood have been around the block plenty of times, stubbornly making their living out of a love of writing. And a tough living it is, too. While bestselling authors can make megabucks, most writers earn their bread the hard way: "$124,000, and it took four years of my life." You do the math. Nevertheless, Wood and Piercy do not discourage the artist; instead they nurture with motherly advice on agents, and bittersweet tales, such as the story of "Kitchen Man", Wood's exemplary novel (excerpted in the appendix) that goes from campus favorite to out-of-print remainder in that too-short life cycle for so many excellent books.

There exercises, some to polish dialog, and my favorite exercise, a sort of checklist to get to know your characters that reads like a questionnaire for a dating service! There are anecdotes about other famous writing coaches, such as the story of a short novel that goes from coach Maxine Kumin to Joyce Carol Oates. Kunin advises the author that the work is going to be a short novella. "No, it's a short novel of 180 pages" declares Oates. When the manuscript was finished, Joyce then tells the author "Treat this as if you are going to die. And this is what you will leave behind." Pithy. Meaningful. This is good writing coaching. This is a warm, wonderful book especially for the memoir or fiction writer.
--Joanna Daneman, AMAZON.COM TOP TEN REVIEWER

More from the Critics:

CATEGORY: Writing / Reference / Memoir / The Novel
PUBLISHER: Leapfrog Press
PAGES: 328
TRIM: 6 x 9
ISBN: 0-9728984-5-X
PRICE: $16.95 / Paperback Original