Writergrrls Book Reviews

Creating a Life Worth Living, Carol Lloyd

Reviewed by Waverly Fitzgerald

While trying to decide which of three paths to pursue after college-social work, academia, or art-Carol Lloyd invented the "three paths" writing exercise in which she outlined the probable outcomes and struggles of each path, and ended up committing to the creative life. After years of helping her creative friends solve their career problems, (and a little nudge from Julia Cameron whose work informs hers), Lloyd wrote a book which is not just for artists, but anyone who wants to harness creative energy to create a unique career path.

I found this book at a time when I had just decided to commit to my writing career as if it were a business. My biggest problem (one I share with many creative people) was lack of focus. Lloyd's "three paths" exercise helped me choose between memoir, nonfiction, and novel writing. Once I made a commitment to novel writing, I worked through the exercises in Lloyd's book that help identify needs and design a life that meets them. I especially like her take on Day Jobs, which she groups into categories: In the Big Tent (you're in the field but not performing your art), No Contest (a job which doesn't detract from your art because it's mindless), Counter Balance (provides qualities missing in your creative endeavor), and Well Spring (your work is creative).

I don't agree with everything in the book. I didn't recognize myself in the section where Lloyd categorizes artistic types, but it did help me recognize the gift-giving motivation that inspires the creativity of several of my friends. Many of the exercises are similar to those found in The Artist's Way but the difference is that Lloyd assumes you want to be successful at your creative work. Her approach is always practical: How can you earn enough money? How can you find more time? What do you do with that nagging guilt that you're being selfish? (Put it aside for a week to six months and try pouring "all your generosity into your creative dream; organize your day according to your highest goal.")

Lloyd is a great interviewer and the book is full of inspiring interviews with a variety of artists, filmmakers, musicians, inventors, and writers, including Mary Gaitskill and Jonathan Lethem. Each one talks candidly about the problems they faced and the places they found support. "Ultimately," Lynn Gordon, an inventor, told Lloyd, "your life and who you are is the creative product. It really is about process and not the outcome."

Waverly Fitzgerald is a freelance writer, teacher and writing coach. She just finished her seventh novel and is currently exercising her creativity by seeking an agent and developing a personal website: www.waverlyfitzgerald.com.

The Well-Fed Writer, Peter Bowerman

Reviewed by Sonya Carmichael Jones

Writers Be Aware! Yes, you can turn your passion, your great ideas, and your talents into an enterprising career.

Peter Bowerman, author of The Well-Fed Writer, teaches aspiring and even experienced writers step-by-step know how for getting writing projects that pay. His smart, funny, and quick-read book helps uncover the mystery of how you can earn top pay as a freelance commercial writer.

Whether you need to boost your motivation, worry about limited experience, or haven't quite decided to take the plunge (I fell into all three categories), Bowerman's book will get you excited about writing. And you will learn how to make money. He covers low-cost marketing strategies, where to get clients in a tight economy, how to develop easy, repeatable systems, and which resources provide the best information.

All this said, there is one caveat that cannot be overlooked. You must be prepared to work hard. Savvy advice and strategy won't take the place of focus and persistence. Somewhere in his book Peter reminds us that if this were easy everyone would be doing it and we'd all be earning six bucks an hour.

Now get ready, get set, and write on!

Sonya Carmichael Jones is a Seattle-based freelance writer. Her writing credits include Bank of America, Washington Mutual, WestFarm Foods, Grand Central Casino, and Thermatrix Engineering. Other creative projects include a collection of short stories and a spiritual fiction novel which will be available January 2003.

Your Money or Your Life, Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin

Reviewed by Rebekka Stahl

In a previous book review, I discussed a book that I'd tried for years to read without success. Only when I teamed up with a friend was I able to make it through The Art of Fiction. I've had the same experience with Your Money or Your Life. Once again, I'm glad I stuck it out. Now that I've joined a group of friends in working through this book, I'm beginning to reap the rewards of which I'd heard so much from other fans of Your Money or Your Life.

This book is for those of us who've struggled for years trying to adapt a spending life to an idealized budget (much like trying to fit into that "perfect" size 8), and given up in despair. The focus of the book is to help you, through a series of steps over nine chapters, become conscious of not just your spending habits, but your values-and to determine whether your cash outflow is expressing those values or undermining what is most important to you. As the title suggests, the authors equate money with life energy (and define money as that for which we trade our life energy). The book invites readers to consider just where they are spending that precious, non-renewable, finite resource.

The exercises-determining how much income you've generated in your life, creating an inventory of everything you own, recording every expenditure and earning (including that quarter you find in the laundry room)-are designed to help you gather data without judgment or blame.

Having gathered the data, you can then begin to create a realistic picture of where your money is actually going. At that point you can start to see how those expenditures reflect what matters to you. Hmm, I tell myself that I really want to pay off this credit card, and yet I keep spending money on dinners out. Which is really more important to me? For the authors, either answer is reasonable. Maybe I decide that a meal out every week is really worth the trade in life energy that it requires. Or maybe I decide that I'm willing to live on rice and beans until I get rid of that credit debt. The important piece is waking up to where the money and life energy goes. Then you decide whether that's a trade you feel is worthwhile and in alignment with what matters to you.

Though I've read the book before, this is the first time that I'm following the exercises. One nice surprise has been discovering a delightful sense of enough when I did my inventory. I feared that, in this culture of MORE MORE MORE, the inventory would leave me feeling bereft. Instead, I spent several days really seeing all that's come into my life-the many cherished gifts I have from friends and family, and the priceless items (such as copies of the Writers on Writing weekly spot in the New York Times taped to the wall above my computer) that would earn nary a penny at a garage sale, but that continue to give me happiness and contentment.

Most of all, I appreciate the book's tone of curiosity and exploration, and the responsibility the authors ask readers to take. It's a call to adult fiscal behavior that I find empowering and refreshing.

Heidi (a.k.a. Rebekka) Stahl consciously trades her life energy for performing technical editorial duties as a permatemp at Microsoft. When away from the Borg, she trades her life energy for the pleasure of reading and writing short stories.