With more than twenty-five years of experience teaching creative writing between them, Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter offer more than seventy-five exercises for both beginners and more experienced writers. These exercises are designed to develop and refine two basic skills: writing like a writer and, just as important, thinking like a writer. They deal with such topics as: discovering where to start and end a story; learning when to use dialogue and when to use indirect discourse; transforming real events into fiction; and, finding language that both sings and communicates precisely. "What If?" will be an essential addition to every writer's library, a welcome and much-used companion.

2007-01-04 Excellent

As a writer and teacher of creative writing I find this a gold mine for starter activities and longer writing exercises. It lets you try out approaches and techniques rather than being a how to guide to creative writing- and most importantly shares with you the results of other writers (both famous and unknown) who have done the exercises.