THE FIRST BOOK OF CREATIVE WRITING

Creative Writing, here restricted to compositions, book reports, and short stories--i.e. school assignments, consists of Plot. Characters, and Style but not organization and development. Often, skimpy definitions substitute for tangible examples--e.g. of style: ""the more original the way, the more creative the writing."" Flat statements, which sound like thesaurus-inspired variables (""using synonyms avoids boredom""), make a pitch for ""verbs that pack a punch"" and ""necessary nouns and proper pronouns."" Examples consist of one direct statement (""Lombardy poplars grew along the lane"") and one alternative (""Rows of Lombardy poplars guarded the lane"") but there is no discussion of how ""guarded"" changes the meaning of that sentence, no reference at all to context. A first book -- maybe; certainly not the last word.