This little book is a treasure trove of quotes and quips and inspirational insights on writing. I highly recommend it as a gift for any writer in your life. I only shaved a point off because of the misleading title; the book doesn't really take you inside the lives of 55 writers, rather it presents thoughts or ideas from 55 writers. These thoughts are valuable, though, and the book is full of encouragement.

Thanks to Netgalley and Chip Scanlan for providing me with a free ecopy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

Writers on Writing asks distinguished authors four questions about their writing life. Although the questions are the same, the answers are all widely different and I really enjoyed the pearls of wisdom that can be gathered from each interview. I particularly enjoyed the interviews with Rosalind Bentley, Bruce DeSilva and Bronwen Dickey. What makes this book such a gem is that you can keep dipping into it to discover more useful tips that will benefit where you are in your own writing process. Overall, I highly recommend this.

What initially caught my attention was this book's cover. The yellow background is bright, inviting like a sunny day. And the image of a classic typewriter, one that looks very much like own my very first typewriter back in the late 1970's, instantly summons forth everything about writing that captured my imagination so many decades ago.

Scanlan presents fifty-five mini interviews with a wide-range of authors, journalists and editors. He gives each person four questions - the same four questions, recording their answers to help other writers hone their craft. A simple and brillant approach that yields quite a bit of useful advice. And from each chapter Scanlan generates additional prompts for the reader to consider for their own writing exercises or things to add to their own journal of writing reflections. This last part really makes this collection an interactive resource - it is "showing and not just telling" (my favorite writing advice).

As someone who hosts a monthly writers group program for the local public library where I work, I found this writing resource to be very valuable indeed. This is exactly the type of book that I would add to my own personal library of writing references, and I would recommend other writers (aspiring and experienced) to do the same.

Writers on Writing represent a visionary collation of advice from fifty-five writers: novelists, educators, journalists and more. Chip Scanlan then reprocesses their thoughts in the form of promptings for the aspiring writer to dig deeper for specific writing tips.

The overall most compelling piece of advice for me was to write in The Journal every day; write about everything and anything; write about tips that work, tips that don’t work. Or examine your feelings about the difference from one process to another. Then, as you describe your feelings, you will begin understanding your writer-self more and more and more.

Fifty-five writers contributing two-hundred-twenty tips provides a treasure trove of wisdom: Susan Orlean, Chapter 1: suggests the use of smells to add depth and sharpen our descriptions. And timely for my personal need is Kelly Benham French, Chapter 24: “dependent clauses rob sentences of energy and clarity.” My grammar checker never fails to prompt me for this rule. It is time to implant it in my memory.

Writers on Writing is well-packaged and offers many points of access to the subject of writing excellence. It is a journal you may use every day or for inspiration as needed. Chip Scanlan seems to know his audience very well in offering a maze of diverse pathways to soaking up excellence in the intriguing subject of writing.

I have no hesitation in recommending Writers on Writing to writers at any stage in their lives. I rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

You'll learn new things. You'll be reminded of writing truths you know but have perhaps forgotten or, worse, ignored. You'll even look on long established writing habits with a new eye. Even if you consider yourself "just a reader" you'll come away with a newfound respect for the words, the heart and soul of the writer, that you read on the page. And, who know, you might even be inspired to set down a few of your own words.

I won't detail the information shared as it will apply to each in different ways. Instead, I'll simply say that this one should be on your bookshelf. Thanks to #NetGalley and #BooksGoSocial for allowing me a peek into some of these author's minds and work habits.

As an avid reader I have often thought that I would love to have the ability to write a book, and I’m certain that I’m not alone in that thought amongst the vast community of readers. If you are one of those people then you really need to read this book!
I wasn’t sure what to expect, having read a number of books that proclaim to help you become a writer, but that fall sadly short of the mark. However, from the first few pages I was hooked and couldn’t devour everything this book has to offer quickly enough.
Covering an array of writing elements, topics and issues, this book is full of short, sharp, golden nuggets of information, not just from people who talk about writing, but from those who actually do it and are offering up these nuggets from their lived experience.
I loved all of the inspiring quotes, as a fan of a good, meaningful and well delivered quote, I can honestly say that these have been well chosen and fit in with what this book is aiming to achieve. But more than that, one of the best bits in this book are the coaching tips, which I thought were really on point.
At the end, there is a section containing short pen pictures of each of the contributors and their literary achievements. This, I found, adds credibility to the advice they shared, which is likely to appease any skeptics out there regarding how ‘real life’ their experiences are.
In short, I loved this book and I highly recommend it.
My thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this book in return for an honest review.

I got an advanced digital review copy of this book via NetGalley and I devoured the book. I am a writer. So, every piece of advice, every coaching tip and every quote was on point for me.

The short and concise format works really well as it is just the best parts.

My hearty congratulation to the editors for stripping away anything that was not value adding and just leaving the gems in the book.

If you are a writer (and this can be almost a metaphor for whatever you want to be), this book has some seriously good advice and tips. Must READ!

While this book was not what I was expecting, there were some pretty good quotes that I can see maybe using with them high school writing students.

'Writers on Writing' by Chip Scanlan contains short snippets of interviews with 55 writers, where they answer four questions:
1. What's the most important lesson you've learned as a writer/editor?
2. What has been the biggest surprise of your writing/editing life?
3. If you have to use a metaphor to describe yourself as a writer/editor, what would it be and why?
4. What is the single best piece of writing/editing advice anyone gave you?
Perhaps because this is a journal, supposed to act as a companion piece to a bigger book, the chapters are incredibly short and only contain snippets of interviews. The information is presented without the prompt questions so sometimes the comments seem random and contextless. Because the author has chosen to present a writer at time, the reader needs to be dedicated in order to draw conclusions from the pieces of advice, whereas if common themes had been grouped together, this might have been easier. All in all, there are some interesting nuggets in this book, but it won't become one of my favourite books on writing.

An incredible act of generosity. There were intriguing insights with thoughtful tips. The suggestions and idea were great. I found this book extremely useful.

This was not quite what I was expecting. I expected more from the "interviews," but there were some interesting tidbits. It is a quick read, and there are some tips that could be helpful to writers at various stages. However, it just skimmed the surface and didn't provide the depth I expected based on the blurb.

Tips Of The Trade…
Useful writing handbook. Tips of the trade in bite size portions from those in the trade - a fair variety of both writers and editors. Plenty of little gems of information and encouragement together with writing prompts. A worthwhile read.

Not really my cup of tea. I can see how this can help people with writing but there are better alternatives

This is a decent book for any writer to dip into. There are lots of pieces of helpful advice.

Thanks to Chip Scanlan, NetGalley, and BooksGoSocial for this copy.

I'm not entirely sure how to describe this book, it isn't really what I thought it was going to be. The 'interviews' are very brief - but do offer some interesting tips and due to the book's brevity, it's easy to dip in and out, and some of the 'coaching tips' are helpful, even to writers that have been doing it for a while! If you're looking for some inspiration, I guess this will help.

As a Writer, I found this book comforting. The author posed four questions to fifty five writers and the result was a book that provides insights into writing, journalism, editing and the love for stories.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

I loved the writing exercises in this book. As a writer, I’m always looking out for helpful and educational books to help me along my journey. This was unique in that the prompts weren’t the typical ones you see repeated. I feel like I learned a lot, and much I’ll be able to apply to my writing life.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author, for the chance to read and review this book.

Writers on Writing is quite different from the majority of books I’ve read about writing. Instead of a straight up guide dealing with the writing process and things like plot, characterization, world building and the like, Chip Scanlan treats us to 55 different takes on the process as he asked authors, editors, and journalists to answer 4 simple questions. Each chapter is bite sized (only a few pages long), offering up opinions/tips/ tidbits on what each of those interviewed feels are the keys to being a successful writer. It’s a quick read and there are definitely some real pearls of wisdom that make it worth reading.

Thanks to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review an eARC of Writers on Writing.

This is a terrific book full of inspiring tips for writers or students.
As an educator it makes me more than ever want to push students to think and reflect like writers in delivering their work.

Interesting insights with bountiful tips, thoughts, suggestions, exercises and reflections on the writing process