The Writer's Portable Mentor: A Guide to Art, Craft, and the Writing Life, Second Edition

A writer friend of mine recommended this book and I only wish I'd known about it sooner. It breaks down some of the "magic" of good writing and makes it accessible. If you're diligent and willing to do the work, this book will help you improve (regardless of how long you've been at it). Within a week after I started reading I already see a huge positive impact on my own writing. THANK YOU!

I love this book! I have never seen a book so comprehensive and thorough in helping writers learn everything they need to know to improve their craft. It covers verbs, story structure, how to perfect your ear for language and it shows you how to establish a writing practice, a lexicon, and so much more. It really is a mentor in a book. It uses examples to teach and is packed with lessons to help you apply what you're learning. This book is a must have for beginning writers and it can also help writers who are further along deepen their knowledge of the craft. I'm just really grateful that I came across this book. It is exactly what I had been searching for.

This is great for anyone that is over reading all the fluff writing books out there. I have a tendency to pick up all the books on writing I can get my hands on. It's a love of the craft without doing the work. I'd describe a lot of them as fluff on the subject, giving permission to writers to do the work and to just sit down and write. This one is something completely different. I am so glad that I got my hands on it! There are a handful of practical tips I can really get my fingers into and I have more highlighted and marked up than any other writing book on my shelf!

Great as a reference book and although some of the suggested tasks are basic sometimes it is good to go back to the beginning.

I’m a person who prefers to learn through examples and this 2nd edition delivers a wealth of them. I’ve been using the first edition since it was released in 2010 and now I have the 2nd edition with almost all new examples and stories. As I continue to learn more about the craft I find The Writer’s Portable Mentor always offers something new, something I didn’t absorb in previous readings.This 2nd edition is available in an electronic version and I can easily carry it with me and consult it when I’m writing in coffee shops and with writing groups. My first experience with the 2nd edition was in the Uptown coffee shop while writing with a friend. I was looking for a way into a new piece and pulled out my phone to take a look at the structure section. I got an idea of how to tell my story and was energized to start writing. Another time, I wanted to practice writing metaphors and worked through the chapter on metaphors and similes. The new examples in the 2nd edition provide a fresh look into the exercises.I have to confess that I also have two copies of the print book—one for my home and one for my office. I had three copies of the previous edition so that I could always carry one with me but now I’ve substituted the electronic version which lightens my book bag. I guess you could say that I want this book at my fingertips at all times—a portable mentor.

Priscilla Long is a master teacher of writing in Seattle. Students vie to get into her small and productive workshops and come away with polished pieces that get published. The Writer's Portable Mentor converts her teaching methods into engaging and readable prose, peppered with seductive exercises, that will enable those not able to attend her classes to produce virtuoso writing.I've long used the first edition of The Writer's Portable Mentor in teaching writing classes, and I can see the positive effects on my students. As a writer, I've absorbed the practices, suggestions and exercises into my writing life, greatly improving my skills.Usually a second edition is simply a re-publication of the first edition by another publisher. But for this second edition, Priscilla replaced every single example (sentence, models, paragraphs, metaphors, openings, titles, etc.) in her first book with a new example. So I have more to learn and more to share with my students. I think every writer needs both editions.

I'm a writing mentor in the USA and Canada, and I recommend Priscilla Long's book in the Second Edition to all my writing students. I've carried the first edition everywhere for years. That's me on the trail in the Canadian Rockies with a copy. Priscilla knows a great deal about what makes a writer. For decades, she's studied discipline, craft, grammar, and the best practices of living as a writer. I have used the exercises in this book to understand what a virtuoso sentence is, and to try out new structures of essays. This is the best writing book out there.

I loved the first edition of The Writer's Portable Mentor so much that I couldn't see how a second edition was a good idea. But Long has done her usual over-the-top job here, giving us new models throughout the book that further deepen insights into how great writers work. Wannabe and beginning writers need this book, that much is clear, but as someone who has been hammering away at the writer's trade for decades, I can vouch for its continuing relevance and importance. The Writer's Portable Mentor is still a must-have, and still a treasure.

This book arrived in perfect condition. I was very pleased! Thank you!