Book Review: Project Canvas
COMING NOVEMBER 15TH, 2018
An international writing community.
61 authors
11 countries
6 continents
Are you looking for advice on how to create the perfect villain? Do you need the courage to put your story down on paper? Find this and more in Project Canvas, a writing resource written completely by teen and young adult writers and compiled by Caroline Meek and Olivia Rogers.
Project Canvas includes:
- 71 short chapters, each written by a different author
- bonus interviews with authors such as Tessa Emily Hall and Q. Gibson
- world building and character development worksheets
- and other helpful resources!
“This is a writing teacher’s dream – not a how-to book, but more of a literary testimony and homage to the process of writing. A sweet balance between the practical and the spiritual, Project Canvas is concise enough for daily meditation, yet robust enough to move the writer’s soul beyond the temporary.” –Brian Dolezal, professional development and spoken word coach at Sumner Academy of Arts and Science.
I’ve been following the Project Canvas blog for a while and I’ve really appreciated all the tips the contributors have shared. There are so many writers who are a part of Project Canvas, and it’s really cool to see so many people come together to celebrate art and help one another learn and grow in their craft. So obviously, when I had the opportunity to be part of a blog tour for the official book I jumped on it. Supporting fellow authors is something I’m really passionate about—which is part of the reason I’m so drawn to Project Canvas—so I always do my best to promote other authors, and self-published authors in particular.
This book is basically the Project Canvas blog in book form. By that I don’t mean “Oh, you could have found all this information on the Project Canvas blog.” That’s far from what I mean to say. What I mean by that is that it’s a book of amazing writing advice from a huge, group of authors from all over the world who have come together to help and encourage and teach other young writers.
Also, have I mentioned they’re all young adults? I love to see young people succeed and make a difference despite society’s low expectations for them, so this is another thing I love about Project Canvas.
The articles in this book cover a broad variety of writing topics, anywhere from characters to worldbuilding to plotting to getting through writer’s block to remembering why you write in the first place. I gained insight from almost every piece in this collection, and it’s the kind of resource you refer to again and again and again when you’re struggling with your writing.
There were a lot of copy-editing oversights, which made this a bit more difficult to read, and there were some articles that I didn’t quite love just due to my views differing from those of the authors, but they didn’t take away from the overall value of the book.
Also, there are resources in the back! I haven’t had a chance to use them yet, but there are character and worldbuilding worksheets that look super cool, there are lists of suggested books to read, and the blog addresses of all the contributors (who have blogs) are listed. (I’m super excited to follow a lot of them.)
I can’t wait to get this book in print and add it to my writing reference shelf. I highly recommend it to any author looking for a good reference.
Project Canvas is available for purchase here!*
*This is an Amazon affiliate link, which means if you buy through this link I get a share of the profit at no extra cost to you
You can also buy from BookShop**, which supports local independent bookstores in the U.S.!
**This is also an affiliate link, which means if you buy through this link I get a share of the profit at no extra cost to you
Add on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42446616-project-canvas
Add on StoryGraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/15017894-d963-41b2-a297-399863d33d05
Website: https://projectcanvasbook.weebly.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/projectcanvas_
Blog: https://projectcanvasblog.blogspot.com/
About the Founders
Caroline and Olivia have been friends ever since kindergarten, when they met in a homeschooling group. Their writing journey was a slow evolution over the course of many sleepovers, games of pretend, writing stories together, and finally publishing some of them.
Caroline Meek is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Project Canvas. She’s originally from Kansas City, Kansas, where she co-authored The Drawing in of Breath and attended Sumner Academy of Arts and Sciences. Caroline has a passion for bringing writers together and is currently studying English & Creative Writing on the Publishing track at the University of Iowa. She’s been published in The Kansas City Star, Ink Lit Mag, Wordsmith, and blogs at Of Stars and Ink-Stained Things.
Olivia Rogers is the co-founder of Project Canvas. She’s originally from the great state of Kansas, where she showed sheep, competitively debated, and also became involved in politics. Olivia believes that writing is the gateway to change. She’s currently studying Political Science and Philosophy at Kansas State University, with the goal of becoming a lawyer and continuing to advocate for others.
Giveaway
Project Canvas is running a Rafflecopter giveaway from November 1-15th! Go here for a chance to win free copies of Project Canvas and more.
Don’t forget to stop by the other blogs on this tour! For a complete tour schedule, see the Project Canvas blog (projectcanvasblog.blogspot.com).
I’m so excited to read this!!! :D
It’s awesome! I hope you find it as helpful as I did!