Never Say You Can't Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times By Making Up Stories
Charlie Jane Anders
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Never Say You Can't Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times By Making Up Stories
Charlie Jane Anders
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
... organic and user-friendly in a way that some writing guides are not. Personally, I love craft books (I even list posted about it) and it’s fun to see how Anders’ book fits into the landscape. Many of them also function as quasi-memoirs, or begin to feel almost like self-help manuals, Anders’ book is chatty, funny, and walks you through things like how to construct a scene, how to build a plot, how to make your characters more real—the kind of things that you have to be comfortable with in order to tap into your voice as a writer. I also liked that Anders drew on her years as a major voice in SFF to give some genre-specific advice.
... [an] insightful, instructive essay collection.
Anders gifts readers with digestible and motivating writing advice dipped in a satisfying coating of snark. Using her own life and writing career as inspiration, Anders cuts through preconceived notions of what it is to be a writer, dismissing dichotomies and spilling truths about imposter syndrome.
... earnest though overwrought.