What It Is | 
| Author: Lynda Barry
Publisher: Drawn and Quarterly
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $15.31
You Save: $9.64 (39%)
New (35) Used (6) Collectible (1) from $12.98
Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 2449
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 209
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 8.6 x 0.9
ISBN: 1897299354
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN: 9781897299357
ASIN: 1897299354
Publication Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20081010212127T
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Product Description
“Deliciously drawn (with fragments of collage worked into each page), insightful and bubbling with delight in the process of artistic creation. A+” —Salon
How do objects summon memories? What do real images feel like? For decades, these types of questions have permeated the pages of Lynda Barry’s compositions, with words attracting pictures and conjuring places through a pen that first and foremost keeps on moving. What It Is demonstrates a tried-and-true creative method that is playful, powerful, and accessible to anyone with an inquisitive wish to write or to remember. Composed of completely new material, each page of Barry’s first Drawn & Quarterly book is a full-color collage that is not only a gentle guide to this process but an invigorating example of exactly what it is: “The ordinary is extraordinary.”
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 What It Is Is Very Helpful May 16, 2008
Laura Shaffer (pittsburgh, pa usa)
14 out of 19 found this review helpful
I have really been enjoying this book. It's about how to do creative things, especially writing. I know that the answer is to stop reading self-help books and start doing creative things, but I am addicted. Plus, for some reason I haven't taken a creative writing class since, well, possibly ever, so the basic advice in this book really helped me. An excerpt:
"We notice that when people tell the story of their lives it often sounds like an obituary -- a lot of general information but almost no images. We notice also that journal writing has a rather similar quality to it, only instead of information we find a lot of writing about our feelings. The main feeling is discontent and worry, outrage, regret, despair, complaints, vague questions about life, hope of a transformation...we find a lot of writing, but almost no images!"
Whoah. I mean, duh. I mean, umm...I guess this is kind of obvious but I have never really thought about it before. Barry's main suggestion is to just write, using very simple words as prompts. I was previously aware of the idea of writing prompts, but mostly things like "what i did on my summer vacation," which tend to produce dry results like those mentioned above. So, I have been really found this book helpful and interesting, not to mention that it is full of fun cartoons and pictures and a magic cephalopod.
On the other hand, I felt that the book could have been a lot more compact. There were a lot of extra collages that were fine but didn't really do much for me except make me wonder if I had to read them all instead of skipping to the end. Also, I haven't quite finished the book yet, but so far all the writing advice applies to writing about things you have experienced. I'm hoping there's going to be something about developing fiction eventually, but I'm not sure there is.
Pure Lynda Barry Experience, get your creative juices going or just marvel at hers May 24, 2008
Jessica Weissman (Silver Spring, MD USA)
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
This is the essence of the creative writing course Lynda Barry gives around the country these days. It conveys the course stuff beautifully, AND is a work of art in its own right. Not a rehash of her other books in any way, it just worms its way into your mind.
Every page is beautiful, every page contains insights into creativity, every page is just plain fun (or just scary fun), and it has everything you need to apply the writing method Lynda uses in your own work.
You really can write out of your own memories, and come up with something that isn't drivel. Get the book and try it. And join Lynda in tipping your hat to Marilyn Frasca, who originated the method.
this book is essential May 22, 2008
R. Marcott (brooklyn, ny United States)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
Have you ever needed jumper cables to revive your creative process? This book is essentially just that.
I have long been a Lynda Barry fan, but this is what a sense will be an essential reference book for any creative type. It bores down into just what makes one want to create and suggests exercises and steps to get whatever festers inside you out.
To say that it has prompted me to fine tune my and understand my writing in much more depth would be an understatement. It also has gotten my to pick up my pencil and draw/sketch for the 1st time in over 15 years.
I am pretty sure i will be constantly reading and rereading this as i further hone the creation craft.
if you crave creation in any form, this book is a must.
Lynda Barry--What It Is May 21, 2008
T. Bal (michigan)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
This book has lifted my inspiration and creativity like nothing else in years! I'm writing a memoir!
Amazing Book July 11, 2008
W. Donovan (New York)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I am an artist-teacher, and I wish someone had presented this information to me sooner.
The book has a front section that is sort of an artistic, stream of consciousness, diaristic account of Lynda Barry's own creative life. Followed by a workbook, which I didn't have any specific expectations about, but I was sitting there following the steps, and it was pretty amazing how effective the method Barry advocates is. It took me off guard, and I think I am going to use it next week in the class I teach.
Overall this book ranks somewhere around the best books I have ever read because it sort of snuck up on me, and made realize some stuff about myself and my creative process that I may have resisted in a less charismatic presentation.
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