Writing from Personal Experience: How to Turn Your Life Into Salable Prose

The author basically tells of techniques with which she's had success in her writing classes, and has exercises for you at the end of each chapter that are very helpful, too. Just be warned, not all the exercises can be done sitting down! They require walking outside and getting fresh air! Oh, darn!

I had the good fortune of taking her class in the Fall 2000. Her persona shines throughout the book. Her stories ring true with an authenticity that crackles. If you ever have a chance to take her class in NY do it! Her comments remind you of Dorothy Parker and the experience of hearing 15 strangers thoughts come to life is an treat you will never forget. Her class and the book are a delight.

WRITING FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE is an excellent guide for beginning writers as well as experienced ones. We all need to be reminded to show the action in scene, rather than tell about it, using specific details and memorable character quirks. Kelton comes at revision from several different perspectives, each one refining the work, making it more inviting to readers and easy to understand. Most important, she notes that the writers who succeed are those who persevere, accept suggestions with an open mind, and trust they will find their own writing voice. Those who are discouraged by a few rejections likely want to be writers more than they want to WRITE. I will recommend this book in the next writing workshop I teach. As an experienced writer, I enjoyed this review of all the most basic and essential elements of good writing as I prepare to write in a new genre. ~~Joan Mazza, author of DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE, DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF, and 3 books in The Guided Journal Series with Writer's Digest.

As a free-lance writer wanna-be, I found this book to be inspiring, insightful, and very entertaining. Nancy (I feel like I've known her for years) shares what she's learned and taught as a writer/instructor and gives you really useful tips, suggestions, guidelines and yes, warnings about getting started writing for yourself. She speaks of the importance of writing from the inside out and showing your authentic self. Her humor, wit and candor show up on every page, and make this book as entertaining as it is instructional. This is NOT a book to guide you through the business of writing...it is a book to inspire you, to challenge you, to help you find the courage to let your insides hang out, put them on a page, and learn to revise, revise, revise. At the end of each chapter, Nancy provides you with exercises to practice what she's preached. The exercises really work, enabling you to actually see your work evolve as you move through the book! I gained so many new insights as I began reading, that I read through the entire book for its inspring messages, and then sat down and read through each chapter again. I recommend this book to any aspiring writer, as well as to those who wish their muse would kick in more often! This book is a true gem!

I can't wait to get started on the exercises! Ms Kelton does a wonderful job a validating the reader's desire to write and encouraging writing for the sake of writing. I checked this book out from the library but am now ordering a copy to keep and loaning my library copy to my partner. I just regret that I can't take Ms Kelton's class.