I love this book. This book encourages you to write in 10 minutes. Choose a photo inside of the book and make a list of what you see. Then, free write for 10 minutes about the things on your list. It is hard to find a good book like this. It is a diamond in the rough.

This book is unusual in that it's written by two people each taking a different aspect of writing.
It seemed to require almost a classroom application in that having read the 'lesson' the writer goes off to follow the suggestion for that 'class.'
The chapters/lessons are excellent and the intention that a writer discover original thoughts and connections for topics works extremely well.
As I haven't as yet finished the book it is difficult to give a full-on review. I certainly recommend it to those like myself who are looking for fresh ideas for stories and/or novels.

"Discovering the Writer Within: 40 Days to More Imaginative Writing" is a collaboration of Bruce Ballenger and Barry Lane. Both are recognized as successful writers. Each author writes using his own voice. Each shares their individual perspective on writing gained from their own struggles in developing their own writing style.

I liked the natural progression of the material presented. Each chapter includes: a suggested writing assignment or exercise, a section called "Seeing What You Wrote" with suggestions for viewing or critiquing your work, and comments from one of the authors titled "From Writer to Writer" with suggestions and pointers on the assignment, and a final section called "Following Through" with additional suggestions for an approach to zeroing in the writing topic of the day.

Although the subtitle of the book suggests a 40 day schedule, an optional plan is presented as an alternative approach. Since the authors write in a different genre, the book will be helpful to both fiction and nonfiction writers.

The authors stress the importance of developing ideas from your own personal ideas, senses, feeling, dreams, and relationships, to go beyond grammar, vocabulary and form. Clever illustrations and helpful visual examples visually strengthen the application and assimilation of the text.

"Discovering the Writer Within: 40 Days to More Imaginative Writing" is filled with entertaining exercises, important writing essentials, with step by step guidelines and techniques. An important addition to every writer's personal resource library.

"Discovering the Writer Within" is like having a classroom in your backpack. It's organized by days, and each day starts with an exercise. This is followed by a section that briefly asks you questions about what you wrote. Following this comes a longer bit in which one of the two authors (Bruce Ballenger or Barry Lane--they initial these passages) discusses the exercise and its related principles at length.
Often the author will take the opportunity to share his own exercise results, complete with commentary on what works and what doesn't, why, and what the author got out of the exercise.
This book is primarily designed for those people who don't really call themselves writers yet. It's for people who aren't sure of what they're doing or how to go about getting started. If you haven't written professionally yet, if you still sit around wondering what you should do when confronted with a blank page, this could be the perfect book for you.
One of the better aspects of this book is the very personal voice it's written in. Usually co-authored books are written in a neutral voice in order to avoid noticeable differences between each author's work; in this case each author is allowed to retain his voice. Sometimes one or the other will even discuss his reactions to one of the other author's exercises. This very personal viewpoint is often exactly what's needed to convey the real lessons Ballenger and Lane are trying to teach. It also makes the material more interesting, and gives you the feeling that you really are sitting in a small classroom with an interesting and enthusiastic teacher.

Ballenger and Lane are teachers as well as writers, and it shows--in a good way. They neither kill your enthusiasm with criticism nor promise that evaluation and revision don't matter. They use their own experiences to show the ups and downs of being a writer, and the lessons to be learned therein.

To be honest, I really couldn't find any problem with this book. The only remotely negative thing I can think of is the fact that most of this book will be old hat to experienced writers--but then, it isn't aimed at experienced writers.

Fantastic book for the person who can hear the writer inside them saying, "write something, write something..." but need a place to begin. I was in a writer's block when I picked up the book, lost from not having something assigned to me from a teacher or writing class. Once I started, I couldn't stop coming up with ideas. I have shared the book with friends who have always wanted to write and weren't sure they could, and now we discuss results over the phone. A really enjoyable book!

This book allowed me to silence the internal critic in me that kept telling me that my feelings don't matter, aren't interesting, and probably aren't spelled right. :)
Overall, this book allows one to be freed from tyrannous writing rules. There are forty exercises in the book that guide you in essential techniques such as brainstorming, clustering, freewriting, and revision. This book allows one to open up their creative wellspring to pour forth a gusher of new ideas and possibilities.

The exercises in here are awesome and I love how there are short examples of the real life struggles as a writer! I suggest this book to any writer out there.