The Art and Craft of Feature Writing: Based on The Wall Street Journal Guide

Anonymous said on February 24, 2010, 4:20 am:

This book is not very good.The author keeps on repeating that you should make your articles catchy, interesting, and not boring, yet when you read the book, you can barely stay focused. It’s not the examples of articles that are boring, but the style he uses to write the book itself. When I was reading it, my mind kept on wandering about any other thought that popped in my head, and I always had to re-read the last paragraph because I could’nt pay attention, and by the way, this has never happened to any other book I’ve read. Actually, after I read a few chapters of the book I started reading another one called, How to Write Articles for Magazines and Newspapers, and I did not have the same problem. All in all, if you can relax, read it very slowly, and have a lot of time on your hand, I guess it is not too terrible.
Rating: 1 / 5

Anonymous said on February 24, 2010, 5:27 am:

The Art and Craft of Feature Writing was, after all, written over ten years ago. This author gives the blunt impression that both writers and readers are only men. This is ok, however outdated since authors today typically write to both sexes or minimally give examples of women as well as men writers. The reading can be laborious but my two favorite chapters are Shaping Ideas and Notes on Self Editing and Style. I’ll keep the book for reference.
Rating: 3 / 5

Jeffrey L. Shear said on February 24, 2010, 5:44 am:

Cast a cold eye on life on death; horsemen pass by. That’s an epitaph. Was it Yeats, or just one he suggested in a poem? How does it apply to Blundell’s book? Just this: Here is the one and only worthwhile book ever written for writers. I know, because that’s how I earn my living. Blundell is the best, bar none. Throw all the others out. Unless, of course you don’t believe in preparation and craft, in which case, horsemen pass by.

(Many thanks to “Veritas,” with my sincere apologies for aging eyes.)
Rating: 5 / 5

Angelos Kiosklis said on February 24, 2010, 5:54 am:

Enthousiastic customer reviews made my choice of this book a no-brainer. Working for a major international news agency as a financial correspondent, I looked for some fresh methods, angles and ideas to incorporate in my interviews and market wrap-ups from the equity and corporate world. But reading through this (highly-praised) feature-writing guide I was disappointed to see that the material is very boring, outdated and repetitive of the examples used. The book may give some guidance for one-story-a-month, relaxed writers. But it looks out of touch with the modern world of editors demanding fairly speedy ’spot coverage’ of events, where the newsbreaks and the accompanying stories are written on laptop computers and sent by e-mail.
Rating: 2 / 5

Shreemoy Mishra said on February 24, 2010, 6:51 am:

Targeted at journalists but useful for academics and other professionals whose work involves significant writing.
Rating: 5 / 5