Writergrrls Book Reviews

What books inspire you to take action and write? In this section, Writergrrls pick their favorite books on writing and tell how their writing lives have been enhanced and enlightened.

The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, Julia Cameron

reviewed by Mary Jane Adams

Several years ago, I read an interview with a singer-songwriter who recounted her struggles with writer's block. Since I was struggling with it myself at that time, I noted a book she recommended for creative recovery. I went straight to a local bookstore, bought The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, and plunged into the 12-week program for excavating the artist within. This truly was the right book at the right time.

Cameron's prescription is simple: Write three pages of stream-of-consciousness, no-holds-barred writing every day. This is preferably done in the morning, as soon as you wake up, in order to circumvent your internal critic and possibly unravel a few dreams. Cameron calls it "brain drain." In addition, you must keep a weekly appointment with yourself—an "artist's date"—to go play. The book is divided into 12 chapters for the 12 weeks of the course. Each chapter contains questions and exercises to identify exactly when and how creative blocks entered your life.

The Artist's Way changed me. After a few weeks, I submitted my proposal for a radio show that I still do every Sunday afternoon. My morning pages made me honest and sometimes blunt with myself about things I was or was not doing. I set goals and melted internal icebergs. I began writing songs and having fun again. Above all, I reaffirmed my need to nurture my creative life every day.

The Artist's Way is not a book for writers. It's a book for anyone who needs to recover his or her creativity from places in the past where pain still lives today. It's all about reclaiming one's creativity so it can fly once again.

Mary Jane Adams is a freelance writer, editor, and information architect. She aspires to be a successful sea kayaker in the Pacific Northwest. E-mail: maverickmary@yahoo.com

The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers, John Gardner

reviewed by Rebekka Stahl

I'd been trying to read The Art of Fiction book for years8212;which hardly sounds like a ringing endorsement, but bear with me. This book belonged in my "should" category of reading, tucked away on a dusty shelf with War and Peace and Moby Dick. The author, John Gardner, was vaguely familiar to me as an authority on craft, and I figured I should get acquainted with his ideas. And I tried. Many times.

A handful of things put me off, including the title. Even though I first picked up the book in college, I always felt that the ship had sailed on my being a "young writer." That phrase clearly meant 18-year-olds who had been published in The New Yorker.

But this year, my writing partner Irene and I decided to face him together. Taking a chapter one week at a time, we read and discussed. And we discovered he had a lot to teach us.

Perhaps the most exciting and liberating lesson came from this line, late in the book: "Writing an exercise, the beginning writer is doing exactly what the professional does most of the time. Much of what goes into a real story or novel goes in not because the writer desperately wants it there but because he needs it. Again and again one finds oneself laboriously developing some minor character one would never have introduced were he not needed to sell the clock for the time-bomb or to shear the sheep."

Gardner may not be for everyone—he's less forgiving than Natalie Goldberg or Julia Cameron, and his tone is more demanding. But I found that, having absorbed the confidence and methods of Writing Down the Bones and The Artist's Way, I was ready to throw myself into the structure and challenge offered by The Art of Fiction.

Currently working on her favorite short story to date, Rebekka Stahl is a professional editor and an avid Edith Wharton fan.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King

reviewed by Nancy Crowell

"The road to hell is paved with adverbs." This is the sort of pithy advice doled out in novelist Stephen King's book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Frank, funny, and downright opinionated at times, it is a surprisingly inspiring book for fiction writers who have not mustered the courage to show their work to anyone, as well as those who have stumbled along their path and need the encouragement to get back to the practice. It is laced with practical advice on how to get published, how to deal with critics, and where to find stories.

King writes from his own experience. He started collecting rejection slips before he was a teen, and proudly posted them on a nail by his bed. By age 16, the standard forms had evolved into handwritten notes. He is a writer who has worked at his craft for many years and has developed an enviable discipline.

The book offers insight into what influenced King, and how he views his own work—complete with misgivings, insecurities, and a touching degree of vulnerability. He distills years of experience into memorable guidelines as sound as those in The Elements of Style. He passes on gems he has learned, such as "Second draft = First draft -10%," and whenever possible cites the source of his own lessons. King is not a defensive writer; he clearly delights in feedback and is generous toward editing, although he is not entirely insensitive to the process. He offers sound advice on when and how to show your work for feedback.

The story is also inspiring to any writer who dreams of recognition. King was monstrously poor and struggling when he sold the paperback rights to Carrie, his first published novel, which was only completed because his wife pulled the crumpled premise out of the garbage can and encouraged him to keep at it. Although there's some luck involved, it's pretty clear by the end of the book that most of what made Stephen King a best-selling success story was dogged determination and the unwillingness to let anything get in the way of writing—including physical pain.

The final chapter details his nearly deadly 1999 encounter with a van, which hit him as he took one of his daily walks. Because the event happened before King had finished this book, it makes a nice tie-in to how writing can literally save one's life. King also reiterates my own belief that in order to write well one must be a voracious reader, generously providing a copy of his own reading list. Put this one at the top of yours.

Nancy Crowell is currently writing biographical sketches for an Alki software project. A former magazine editor, she has been a published writer for more than 20 years. She was not a Stephen King fan before receiving this book as a gift, but now ranks it among her top five favorites on writing.

Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life, Natalie Goldberg

reviewed by Eve Lopez

Goldberg's works should be on the bookshelves of every writer. I was introduced to this fascinating and inspirational woman by way of a taped workshop. Putting on my headphones, I listened to Goldberg talk about the importance of timed writing exercises, and the need to write until you can't write anymore.

Wild Mind is a follow-up to Goldberg's famous book, Writing Down the Bones. The best part about Wild Mind is that it gives real-life writing practices and exercises to try. One of them is, "Write about dying. Just go." The key is to pick a topic, put your pen to paper and write, non stop, for at least 10 minutes. Goldberg admonishes us not to worry about sounding stupid, or if everything is spelled right; the whole point of the exercises is to get past the inner critic who tells us we're no good.

Goldberg's books have inspired me to be more creative in my journal, and I've done countless writing practices based on her advice. This is a wonderful book for writers and anyone else who wants to live a writer's life.

Eve Lopez is a freelance writer living in Seattle.

Writing the Breakout Novel: Insider Advice for Taking Tour Fiction to the Next Level, Donald Maass

reviewed by Janis Wildy

You'll want to read this book if you know that your fiction isn't quite good enough, but you don't know how to make it better. Donald Maass, an agent in New York, is interested in what makes a good writer become a best-selling author. In Writing the Breakout Novel, he delves into the components that make a novel a must-read for millions of people.

Donald Maass says that a breakout novelist refuses to settle for being "good." He says his office receives 7,500 queries a year and rejects 99.9 percent for having too narrow a vision, weak themes, stereotypical characters, and familiar plot lines. Through unique exercises, he suggests raising the stakes of your novel, reducing the amount of characters, infusing the setting through your character's perceptions, and developing a strong theme.

Don't miss a chance to attend a lecture by Maass. He has an dry sense of humor that makes his suggestions even more memorable. But it is the basic fact that he still cares about writing after seeing so much bad fiction that encourages me to keep trying for great, instead of good enough.

Janis Wildy is a writer and editor currently working on her second novel one page at a time.

Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You, Ray Bradbury

reviewed by DeAnn Rossetti

Famed science fiction author Ray Bradbury is, in my opinion, not only a great storyteller; he's the master of the short story format of writing. His master works of fiction have always reflected an abiding love of words and a zest for life that is heartwarming to readers worldwide.

In this slender volume, Bradbury gives writers solid advice on the craft of writing, while simultaneously uplifting their hearts and minds with paragraphs like this:

"What do you think of the world? You, the prism, measure the light of the world; it burns through your mind to throw a different spectroscopic reading onto paper than anyone else anywhere can throw. Let the world burn through you. Throw the prism, white hot, on paper... then you, a new Element, are discovered, charted, named!"

Bradbury's chapter on "How to Keep and Feed a Muse" is humorous and delightful; it's worth the price of the book for just that chapter alone.

Zen in the Art of Writing inspired me not only as a writer; it inspired me as a creative thinker and a prose stylist. Too many books on writing are full of complaints on the difficulty of the task of getting words on paper. Bradbury focuses on the joy of writing, the rich and fascinating ways of fermenting ideas into stories, and ways to boost your creativity by unearthing the topics and subjects that rivet you mentally and sing to your heart. I highly recommend this book.

DeAnn G. Rossetti is the business and lifestyle reporter for the Mercer Island Reporter, and has been a successful freelance writer for 16 years. She lives in Maple Valley with her husband Jim and toddler son, Nick, as well as way too many books.