Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly Paperback – December 23, 2014

As a grown and happily married woman who is blessed to juggle my writing interests with a prosperous career I’m rationally and intuitively aware that I am outside the target audience for this kindlebook. However, I am in the process of using writing as a tool to cross train myself skillwise and sharpen my creativity and I fortunately came away with some ideas for doing both because of some of the following in this kindlebook; A Running Start with one of the fun writing prompts It was a witchy house, why it is helpful to save what you write for up to 15 years ideally if possible regardless of how you feel about the writing creation, why she wrote this kindlebook, other writing prompts such as an idea to write a fictional book about Jane Austen, a getting into it chapter and an example given through a story about a baker, some more creative writing prompts such as imagining a magical drink, imagining a hearing aid that allows the wearer to hear anything on earth no matter how distant, and much more.

It's honestly a shame I didn't run into this book when I was much younger and at the beginning of my writing career. I probably would have devoured and adored this book back then. As it was, I ended up being perhaps a bit old for the target audience and far too familiar with practical writing advice. So I ended up mostly just nodding along and not learning anything new.Still, it's Gail Carson Levine, and she writes in such a fun and engaging way that I still ended up reading the whole thing anyway. If that's not a testament to her skill, I'm not sure what is. Something about her writing is just engaging and soothing all at once.I may not be the perfect target audience for this book at this point in my life, but I can at least recognize the help it could provide to someone who IS in the right demographic. If I run into any young budding writers who need a word of encouragement, I'll be quick to give them this as a gift.

This book felt validating for me as a writer. I really like the creativity and encouragement of creativity so so much I realised I was in a box so this really got some creative juices flowing

I considered buying "Spilling Ink" instead of this book based on some of the reviews, especially one that stated the buyer had tried all the other young writers' books and liked that one best. But as I skimmed through it online, I felt it had a jaded quality. I also concurred with one reviewer who thought it had some harsh topics and language to which her children had not been exposed, and I certainly did not want that. So I went with this one. Its title, cover, unpretensiousness, and lack of "attitude" appealed to me and seemed a better fit for my daughter.I am so glad I did. It fits my daughter's interests, personality, and writing style so much more. It's not trying to turn her into a young sophisticate; it is geared toward bringing out the magic, wistfulness, creativity, and wonder in a young writer's heart. My 12 year old will be receiving this for Christmas along with a special journal and other writing supplies.I know she will love it.

I am reading this book with my daughter, who is 11 and writing a historical novel as part of her homeschool project. We have a lot of writing resources, workbooks, online classes, worksheets and so on and so forth. A lot of them are too simplistic ( ex. write a sentence about something you see, hear or smell- ugh, boring), or too geared towards common core testing criteria ( ex. Do you know what hyperbole is? Let's tell you 200 different ways for 50 pages.). This book is easy enough to follow, but has a depth and richness that makes it appropriate for a wide range of ages and writing experience. Actually useful.

I teach writing to English Language Learners, adults, and find this book very helpful. I have also written, obviously as a writing teacher, and find it helpful. I have read it to/with my 9 year old daughter, and find it helpful. Although a book about writing - it is more. It is a readable book about writing; not some dull textbook.When I say helpful I mean that there are simply a lot of wonderful and employable ideas; immediately. Many are common sense ideas. I feel we can benefit in reflecting on common sense ideas, not matter whom we are.My daughter has also read a few books for this author (Ella Enchanted, The Wish (rack), The Fairy's Mistake (Princess Tales)) so it made a lot of sense when she described the characters and setting in this wonderful book; but you would not necessarily need such a background. Remember, I use it, effectively with adult male students, in the middle east.Easy recommendation.

Um, I guess I took the title too literally? Since GCL generally writes YA/MG fantasy novels, I assumed the book would be about writing magic... as in, writing fantasy novels. It's really not, so all in all, it really didn't help me.

Where to start?! I cannot say enough great things about this book. Full disclosure; I am NOT the target audience for this as I'm well over the age this was written for. However, this is one of the best books on reading that I have come across. As an adult you'll likely whiz through it in one sitting but the advice provided is absolutely invaluable. After reading, I passed the book along to my teenage son to read, I'll likely even give it to my 17 year old daughter as well.The book offers practical, sage advice along with writing assignments to tackle along the way. While I didn't undergo the writing assignments I believe that they would be very useful to any youth reading this book as it provides a structured way of writing and helps them put advice into motion.