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WriteABookNow Mark Victor Hansen (co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul and dozens of other books) has said this program has some of the best stuff he’d ever used - and he is using this information to crank out still more books! Folks all around the world, even absolute novices, are using these techniques to write books faster than they ever thought possible. There’s even a free email course that gets you started FAST! So if writing a book has always been your goal, your dream, your desire, get yourself over to the site.  author Steve Manning

Marie Arana. The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work: A Collection from the Washington Post Book World
There are notable clunkers.. But the best contributions make slogging through the worst worthwhile. Some of the better stories are already well known: Ray Bradbury's account of how he came to write the screenplay for Moby-Dick, for example, or Donald E. Westlake's story of the creation of the pseudonym Richard Stark for his hard-boiled novels. But there are new treasures to discover as well. Jane Smiley discusses why she disavows her most famous novel, A Thousand Acres: "I am no longer attracted to the dire mechanism of tragedy," while Julian Barnes turns in a droll account of his experience as literary executor for close friend Dodie Smith. Though some of the authors do pass on practical wisdom to would-be writers, this collection is ideally suited for those who want to enjoy the "literary life" vicariously. [Publishers Weekly]

Margaret Atwood. Negotiating With the Dead : A Writer on Writing
The magical, intense relationship between two people who may never have met -- the writer and the reader -- is the subject of Atwood's penultimate essay, while her closing chapter is a meditation on what she sees as the writer's journey to the underworld in search of creative material. And for the reader, too, she points out, "A book is another country. You enter it, but then you must leave; like the Underworld, you can't live there." Atwood's riffs on writing not only will delight readers who are fans of her fiction but also may serve to cheer fledgling writers as they set out on their imaginative journeys. from review [by Merle Rubin, LA Times March 18 2002]

Rachel Ballon. The Writer's Sourcebook: From Writing Blocks to Writing Blockbusters / her website

Judith Barrington. Writing the Memoir : From Truth to Art   "Many of us long to write a memoir, perhaps because this form seems almost halfway between nonfiction and fiction, or because it offers us the chance to be as creative as we wanna be for a change. Barrington's book offers some thought-provoking guidelines to the would-be memoirist, such as how to handle writing about living people, when to name names, moving around in time, and finding the right form for your personal story. Nicely written, with plenty of examples and an intelligent, flexible approach." [review by Susan Perry, PhD from her site]

Erica Bauermeister, et al. 500 Great Books by Women : A Reader's Guide

Hal Zina Bennett Write From the Heart: Unleashing the Power of Creativity  "If you take your journey as a writer seriously, the end product is going to be much more than a published book, poem, article, story, or a lifetime of personal journals. The path will take you beyond the surface of everyday life, toward the inner space of human experience, where you cannot escape the awareness of creative sources far greater than any single one of us. You will discover, somewhere in the infinitude of that seemingly-private universe, heavenly bodies that every one of us sees if we have the courage to look. When we're at our most impactful as writers, those bright stars of inner space shine through, inspiring awe and uplifting our hearts."

Bloom, Lary. The Writer Within: A Guide to Creative Nonfiction   "... offers numerous examples of how Sunday supplement pieces evolve, along with specific tips, such as, "Go there" to get the details that make all the difference in a good story. He also reminds us that it can take longer to find the proper focus for a good piece than to write it, and that you can't always tell what the story really means until you've written a version of it and realized, "That's not right." [review by Susan Perry, PhD from her site]

Ray Bradbury Zen in the Art of Writing "Writing is a series of passions and pains. It is about highs and lows. You can never come up with anything half as good as a grocery list if you're writing mechanically. So, when you write - explode - fly apart - disintegrate! Then give time enough to think, cut, rework, and rewrite."

Alice Brand Psychology of Writing: The Affective Experience

Dorothea Brande, John Gardner. Becoming a Writer
 [reader:] "Brande's simple book, written well before these days of business creativity books, drawing on the right side of the brain, etc., is one of the most clear, concise, compelling books about writing that I have ever read. As a full time writer, I use her words of wisdom often. No nonsense. No pop-psychology. Just good, well written advice for anyone who is serious about creativity in their lives."

 Kate Braverman books
"I've had teachers who haven't made much of an impact, but when somebody completely transforms
your world, that's a mentor. Somebody who's always challenging me and somebody who raises the standards,
that's what I needed. And she would attack a flaw as if it were a personal affront. She's very epigrammatic.
She would put things in a way that seared on your brain."
-- "White Oleander" author Janet Fitch - who was invited by Kate Braverman to work with her in a private workshop.

Sara Caldwell; Marie-Eve Kielson So You Want to be A Screenwriter: How to Face the Fears and Take the Risks   "gives several examples of screenwriters who went through years of discouragement and finally achieved success because they weren't willing to quit. They stuck it out and believed in themselves, despite evidence to the contrary, as well as friends and relatives urging them to give it up and do something more practical." [Sara Caldwell has written/produced dozens of film, television, and video programs; Marie-Eve Kielson is a psychotherapist, writer, and consultant to film companies]

Julia Cameron The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation Into the Writing Life"Cameron, best known for her bestseller The Artist's Way, here offers more motivation for writers, would-be writers, and, interestingly, everyone else too, since she firmly believes that EVERYONE is a writer at heart and everyone SHOULD write. I don't think everyone should be a writer any more than everyone should be a dog trainer. Once you get past that premise, is her advice for freeing up your writing useful? What she terms "initiation" tools include freewriting, positive affirmations, writing postcards to five friends in 15 minutes, listing 50 things that make you happy or 100 things you love, and so on. Though, clearly, such tools are most helpful to writers who aren't flooded by ideas from morning `til night, it's possible that if you're feeling stymied by your current project, one of Cameron's exercises might unrust your creative gears. (But don't limit yourself to listing "things I love." How about "things that make me want to strangle someone"?) [review by Susan Perry, PhD from her site]

Jack Canfield. Chicken Soup for the Writer's Soul : Stories to Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit of Writers
 
 

These poems are deeply me. It's hard reaching inside of yourself -- you don't always like what you see -- but that's what being an artist is all about. Ethan Coen - about his book The Drunken Driver Has the Right of Way

 
Cynthia Curnan The Care and Feeding of Perfectionists    [from Amazon.com:] Jim McGrath, Playwright, Winner of LA Theaters' Ovation Award Television Writer, AIR AMERICA: " I was stuck on a play for ten years. It was the worst case of writer's block I'd ever known. Cynthia's book helped me build a bridge over the block. Within two days, I had turned a problem play into my most meaningful and successful work, ever. I have since used it as a reference manual in the writing courses I teach. Invaluable resource!" //  [actress/director Linda Gray, in LA Times:] "...offers readers the tools to balance themselves on the seesaw of life. She shows how to look at extremes and blend them, through inner guidance, into the most delicious swirl ice cream."

Meri Nana-Ama Danquah. Shaking the Tree: A Collection of New Fiction and Memoir by Black Women
With this collection of fiction and memoirs by 23 black women, Danquah draws attention to a new era of writers following up the legacy established by Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Gloria Naylor, and Jamaica Kincaid. Danquah's collection focuses on works published after 1990, when black women were facing an explosion of issues new to their generation and moving beyond the constraints of the black community physically, mentally, emotionally, and sexually. [Booklist]

Ruby Dee. My One Good Nerve  "Ruby, as a writer, is unique... What she has to say is wide open, free, immediately available to the curious. She has no puzzles that she dares the reader to solve. What she has to say is always public and will fit into any imagination- but only on Ruby's terms. She tears the world apart as a child might do, and then, right before your eyes, she builds it back together again. The same old world, but through Ruby's eyes- it looks brand-new. There is a profound simplicity in this point of view most times, which to appreciate requires that I become profoundly simple in my own point of view. .. Most of us grow up as quickly as we have to, getting further away by the day from who we were when we were children. We shorten our sails, temper our ambitions, and set aside our fondest expectations in order to face the day. But Ruby reminds us that a simpler world is only a thought away, with the light still glowing in undiminished vigor right in the middle of our secret mind." Ossie Davis - from Introduction

Charles Deemer Screenwright: the Craft of Screenwriting   "A guide to writing and marketing the Hollywood screenplay... based on author's electronic screenwriting course." site of Charles Deemer: Screenwriters & Playwrights

Annie Dillard The Writing Life  "The world's spiritual geniuses seem to discover universally that the mind's muddy river, this ceaseless flow of trivia and trash, cannot be dammed, and that trying to dam it is a waste of effort that might lead to madness. Instead you must allow the muddy river to flow unheeded in the dim channels of consciousness; you raise your sights; you look along it, mildly, acknowledging its presence without interest and gazing beyond it into the realm of the real where subjects and objects act and rest purely, without utterance."

Emma Donoghue. Kissing the Witch : Old Tales in New Skins

Marisa D'Vari Script Magic: Subconscious Techniques to Conquer Writer's Block  "I was compelled to write [this book] after successfully unblocking Hollywood screenwriters through a variety of creativity exercises of my own invention. In the course of researching Script Magic, I became fascinated with the work of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, both of whom were aware of the power of the subconscious mind. I expanded on their work in addition to the latest brain research to create the creativity techniques I showcase in the book.."

Lorian Tamara Elbert  Why We Write : Personal Statements and Photographic Portraits of 25 Top Screenwriters [The Book Report review by Jana Siciliano:] "John Brancato and Michael Ferris give us the dirt on the making of THE GAME. Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski take us through the wild imaginings that have led them to their greatest success, THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT. Michael Tolkin's THE PLAYER and Daniel Waters's HEATHERS both give us insightful looks into the mind of the writer while also showing how the rebellious nature of these artists forces them to continually buck the Hollywood system, dogmatic and nepotistic as always."

Naomi Epel The Observation Deck: A Tool for Writers

Naomi Epel Writers Dreaming

James Fenton. The Strength of Poetry : Oxford Lectures
[reader:] '..focuses on the subject of pain and creativity. He argues that a "fertile weakness" can be more productive than strength. It's these weaknesses that shape each poet's unique voice.'

Syd Field Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting

Alice Weaver Flaherty. The Midnight Disease : The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain

Denny Martin Flinn  How Not to Write a Screenplay  "Tackling both form and content, Flinn goes step-by-step through items that can make or break your screenplay. Not sure how to handle transitions smoothly? Struggling with the symptoms of overwriting? Trying to break your propensity for purple prose? Flinn delivers sensible first-aid advice for all of these and a host of other faux pas that can squelch your chances for a winning screenplay. More than just telling you what to do and what not to do, Flinn shows you with examples from real screenplays. His books follows the "show, don't tell" rule in this respect. Flinn points out that over 35,000 screenplays were registered with the Writer's Guild of America in 1998, then adds that most of those screenplays were "terrible." As an executive who's been entrenched among the great and the terrible of the whole screenplay lot, Flinn can help you find your way out of the slush with straighforward, workable solutions for polishing up your work. "

John Fox Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making   "Poetry is a natural medicine; it is like a homeopathic tincture derived from the stuff of life itself-your experience," writes John Fox in this excellent guide to writing as a spiritual practice. The author of "Finding What You Didn't Lose" teaches, lectures, and presents workshops on the interface between meaning-making and writing poetry. He agrees with James Autry's contention that "poetry gives you permission to feel." This paperback is filled with examples of individuals using verse as a container that expresses their deepest emotions... Fox does a fine job explaining the basics of poem-making and has peppered this text with thought-provoking quotations. One by Annie Dillard ends "Poetic Medicine" and signifies the author's own respect for the awesome nature of life: "Our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery." [review: Frederic Brussat, Values & Visions Reviews www.spiritualrx.com]

Bonnie Friedman. Writing Past Dark: Envy, Fear, Distraction, and other Dilemmas in the Writer's Life   "... it's the emotional side of a writer's life that makes the difference between a satisfying level of writing production and giving up. In my own interviews with successful writers, I've learned that, while craft is crucial, a writer frequently isn't able to make use of lessons until the psychological demons are under control. And, as Friedman puts it, "Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing." How, then, does one go about gaining confidence while pursuing this most lonely of occupations? .. Friedman's answers are simple, really: in order to avoid envy, get to work. When you're focusing on your own work, your intrinsic motivation will become stronger... Getting excited by the story you want to tell or the image you want to convey makes it more likely the work will be good."  [review by Susan Perry, PhD from her site]

David A. Fryxell. Write Faster, Write Better 

David A. Fryxell is the former editor-in-chief of Writer's Digest Magazine and Writer's Digest Books. In addition to writing the Nonfiction column for Writer's Digest Magazine, his work has appeared in such publications as Playboy, Reader's Digest and Travel & Leisure. ...
All writers have felt the pressure of a deadline. And whether they are writing for an anxious editor or just to pay the bills, they need all the time-saving techniques they can find. In Write Faster, Write Better, David A. Fryxell walks readers through every step of the writing process--from idea to publishable manuscript--and teaches fiction and nonfiction writers alike how to save time with careful organization, diligent planning, and smart research. [amazon.com summary]

Anu Garg. A Word A Day: A Romp Through Some of the Most Unusual and Intriguing Words in English

Merrill Joan Gerber. Gut Feelings: A Writer's Truths and Minute Inventions
In these highly personal essays and powerful tales that verge on memoir, Merrill Joan Gerber opens to us her life and work as a writer. She is candid and unflinching in revealing the truths and inventions of a writer's vision and the use of life as the raw material of art. Her personal essays range widely, from the mysteries of love and marriage to painful encounters with suicides and family deaths. Gerber writes of her apprenticeships with celebrated writing teachers Andrew Lytle and Wallace Stegner and recounts her ghostly (and ghastly) experiences during a month at Yaddo, the famous retreat for artists. Gerber includes three pieces in the book - originally published as stories-but which blur the line between fiction and memoir, demonstrating Gerber's contention that the deepest secrets in life beget the most passionate fictions. [Amazon.com]

Richard J. Gerrig Experiencing Narrative Worlds: On the Psychological Activities of Reading  "Gerrig's idea is to apply ideas from the general experimental literature in cognitive psychollogy to the reading experience. He studies the kinds of inferences readers make (e.g., causal), "participatory" responses, the kind of "transport" they get into, the effects of reading on real-world understanding, and so on. One of the most interesting questions he answers, I think, is why we feel suspense when we know how it's going to come out." [review by Norman Holland, Psychology of Art list]

Sandra M. Gilbert, Susan Gubar The Madwoman in the Attic  'brought the concerns of feminism to the study of female writers and presented the case for the existence of a distinctly feminine imagination, with female writers suffering from "the anxiety of influence" and "anxiety of authorship" and therefore unable to easily do what Harold Bloom said authors must do: wrest power from their predecessors in order to create their own literature.'  [from article: "Appreciating Female Authors" NY Times, 11.30.00]

Jenna Glatzer. Outwitting Writer's Block and Other Problems of the Pen
[excerpt]   I want you to buy an ugly notebook. Pretty notebooks and journals make you feel like you have to write important and polished things in them. Ugly notebooks let you be yourself in whatever condition you're in. Oh, and be a cheapskate. Don't you dare buy one of those gold-trimmed-page journals. ... In this notebook, I want you to write stupid things. Trivial, pointless, everyday details that fall out of your brain when you're eating breakfast. I want there to be ketchup stains and coffee rings all over this notebook. .... The point of this notebook is to let you jot down every little thing that pops into your brain, without any censoring whatsoever, until you feel creatively purged and ready to focus. Sometimes, writer's block is not caused by a lack of ideas, but of too many ideas all vying for attention at once. You get scattered and don't know where to start. This notebook will help you filter.--

Natalie Goldberg The Long Quiet Highway: A Memoir on Zen in America and the Writing Life [audio tape]   "Natalie Goldberg is a poet, teacher, writer, and painter who has been a student of Zen Buddhism for 25 years. .. On this 8 1/2 hour presentation, she spells out the meaning of writing as a spiritual discipline. Also included is a never-before-published interview in which she describes her relationship with Katagiri Roshi, the Zen teacher who helped her learn to live in the present moment... Goldberg uses writing as a tool to keep her senses alert and as a means of understanding her experience. "Our life is a path of learning. So wake up before we die."[review: Frederic Brussat, Values & Visions Reviews www.spiritualrx.com]

Natalie Goldberg Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within   "Natalie Goldberg studied meditation with Zen master Katagiri Roshi at the Minnesota Zen Center for many years. Then one day, knowing of her interest in creativity, he said: "Why don't you make writing your practice? If you go deep enough in writing, it will take you everyplace."  [review: Frederic Brussat, Values & Visions Reviews www.spiritualrx.com]

Natalie Goldberg Wild Mind : Living the Writer's Life

Griffiths, Sarah, and Kehrwald, Kevin J.  Delicious Imaginations: Conversations with Contemporary Writers   "Featuring interviews with 16 novelists and poets, including Margot Livesey, Russell Banks, and Robert Olen Butler. They were all quite competently done by grad students and originally appeared in Sycamore Review. Rick Bass comments that he makes the switch to fiction when he's in a "fiction frame of mind," and he finds that fiction, when it works, is more of a process of discovery and is far more fun. Obviously, not every writer feels this way, but in my own interviews with novelists, I frequently heard about this "fun" aspect. Such an attitude is less often mentioned by nonfiction authors, no matter how much we may love and believe in -- and be suited to -- what we do. Perhaps a more "serious" atttitude is endemic to the beast." [review by Susan Perry, PhD from her site]

Lawrence Grobel, Robert Towne. Endangered Species: Writers Talk About Their Craft, Their Visions, Their Lives

Lee Gutkind The Essayist at Work : Profiles of Creative Nonfiction Writers   "essays.. by the likes of Annie Dillard, Gay Talese, and Tracy Kidder... the book's editor is an English professor at the University of Pittsburgh and a seemingly tireless proponent of the burgeoning field of creative nonfiction; most of the essays included here are reprinted from the journal Creative Nonfiction.."

Jack Heffron The Writer's Idea Book  [reader:] "If you feel as though your writing is stuck you must get your hands on this book. And if you're not stuck, you'll be relieved to know that you never have to be. The book is organized into fours steps: warming up, generating ideas, finding form, and developing the story (or article) which eases you into a finished piece that feels fun (because it is!). Heffron has packed 255 pages full of over 400 writing prompts for writers of any genre, or just to play with in your journal. Play with them for a while and you WILL start calling yourself a writer."

Lisa Marie Hogeland. Feminism and its Fictions: The Consciousness-Raising Novel and the Women's Liberation Movement

Lew Hunter Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434

Earl G. Ingersoll Margaret Atwood : Conversations  "A gathering of twenty-two interviews with Atwood by other writers, including Graeme Gibson, Joyce Carol Oates, Geoff Hancock. "

Jewel A Night Without Armor: Poems   "I've learned that not all poetry lends itself to music -- some thoughts need to be sung only against the silence. There are softer and less tangible part[s] of our selves that are so essential to peace, to openheartedness, to unfolding the vision and the spiritual realm of our lives, to exposing our souls." [Jewel, from the preface]

Susan Kavaler-Adler The Compulsion to Create : Women Writers and Their Demon Lovers "..analyzes prominent female writers from a psychoanaltic self/object relations point of view."

Ralph Keyes The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear   "We all keep thoughts to ourselves in a zone of privacy. The bigger that zone, the worse our writing. Because within our protected self lies the richest vein of material to mine."
[reader:] "This book is like having a kind and sensitive therapist at the writing desk with you. It's clear, to the point and written in a relaxed, conversational style. Keyes defines the complex fears and anxieties that keep writers from facing the challenge of the blank page and offers insight into moving past fear into joyful written expression! I especially liked all the ancedotes he includes about authors like Hemingway, Faulkner, Proust and Fitzgerald. Anyone who agonizes over what he/she writes will appreciate this book."

Stephen King. On Writing : A Memoir of the Craft   "..the most concise, helpful, specific and entertaining book I have ever read on actually becoming a published writer! He even gives you an opportunity to submit your writing to his website in the book! A must read for anyone who loves to write!" Author Diane Klein

Anne Lamott. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life  "This is a very funny book, and most of the humor is the endearingly self-deprecating kind. Lamott speaks openly of her own jealousy of any writer friend who is slightly more successful at the moment than she is. I'm a sucker for honesty. Don't read this book to be entertained however. Read it to find out something about designing a plot, creating characters..  how good writing happens. According to Lamott, it happens when "you sit down at approximately the same time every day. This is how you train your subconscious to kick in for you creatively." The honest part comes next: "You turn on the computer and bring up the right file, and then you stare at it for an hour or so. You begin rocking, just a little at first, and then like a huge autistic child." This quick-reading book is filled with fresh anecdotes, personal revelations, and practical tips about taking notes, writing groups, and who should read your drafts. You complete it all in a rush, ending with the reassuring sense that regular people, like the author and yourself, if you work harder than you expected to have to, can produce something very good."  [review by Susan Perry, PhD from her site]

Noah Lukeman The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile [The Book Report review by Jana Siciliano:] "Lukeman, a New York literary agent, finds a myriad of ways to getting the best in style and content across... What Lukeman is telling up-and-coming writers is that first impressions are ultimately what make or break your chances of having an agent decide to represent your work or an editor decide to publish it."

Helena Lumme. Screenwriters : America's Storytellers in Portrait   "salutes the men and women who have created hundreds of America's most beloved films. For the first time in the history of the much-documented film industry, this landmark book celebrates - in spectacular photographs and in the screenwriters' own unforgettable words - 47 of the film world's best writers including 18 Academy Award winners and 36 nominees for Best Screenplay."
 
 

The Spooky Art: Thoughts on Writing - by Norman Mailer I am tempted to call this section Economics, for it concerns the loss and gain (economically, psychically, physically) of living as a writer. Let’s settle, however, for a term that may be closer to the everyday reality: Lit Biz. Spend your working life as a writer and depend on it - your income, your spirit, and your liver are all on close terms with Lit Biz. [from Chapter One]

 
 
Eric Maisel Deep Writing : 7 Priniciples That Bring Ideas to Life   [reviewer: Susan K. Perry, Ph.D.] "As the author of a book about writing myself (WRITING IN FLOW), I really appreciated author Maisel's combination of the practical with the passionate. When he talks about combining writing what you love and making a living doing so, it certainly rings true. How much compromise can you make with the real world and still be congruent with your deepest self? In DEEP WRITING, we learn the value of getting and staying engaged with our writing (getting into "flow," in other words). Maisel is unusually frank, too, about his own successes, failures, and learning experiences (not that you can or should even try to separate those three things!). This book feels like an inspiring chat with a compassionate therapist who understands the challenges of being a writer (which Maisel happens to be)."

Eric Maisel, Ph.D. Living the Writer's Life

David Mamet. Three Uses of the Knife : On the Nature and Purpose of Drama

Steve Martin Pure Drivel  'The next two months were heaven. I was no longer just publishing drivel; I was writing it... Not wanting to judge my own work, and not wanting to trust Dolly's love-skewed opinion, I sent my pieces around and had them rejected by at least five magazines before I would publish them in the Drivel Review. I was disappointed when Women's Day accepted a short story I'd written about Gepetto's Handmaiden, but, looking back, I guess I secretly knew that it was good."

Peter Matthiessen Zen and the Writing Life  (audio)
"...focuses on the challenges and the rewards of creativity. The author of both fiction and nonfiction works believes the practice of Zen has enriched his perception of reality and his ability to live in the present moment. Matthiessen discusses and reads excerpts from some of his books on the natural world, indigenous peoples, wild animals, and his crusades for justice. At one point, he quotes E. M. Forster on literature as administering "a series of tiny astonishments." Matthiessen keeps a small journal in his pocket at all times to catch passing sights, sounds, and images. He cultivates a beginner's mind and advocates doing everything with wholeheartedness." [review: Frederic Brussat, Values & Visions Reviews www.spiritualrx.com]

Clive Matson Let the Crazy Child Write: Finding Your Creative Writing Voice
"Author Clive Matson is a popular northern California writing instructor who has six volumes of verse plus an MFA in poetry from Columbia University to his credit. He introduces the reader to three interior characters — the Writer, the Editor, and the Crazy Child — who each have an important role to play in the creation and refinement of good writing. But as the title suggests, Matson is focusing on the primary challenge that most writers face: how to let the creative unconscious or "id" run free for long enough to infuse any literary form with the writer's distinctive joie de vivre. After all, it's the Crazy Child who "coils tension into a story, loads a poem with gripping images, unfurls a play's or novel's plot ratchet by ratchet, and punches up an essay's most dramatic point," according to Matson. It's also our childlike creativity that will enable us to get away with "Good Clichés"— a realm where many writing instructors wouldn't dare to tread, but which Matson explores for a whole chapter." [review by Fearless Reviews: http://www.fearlessbooks.com]
 
 

Feminine Writes: Women, Wisdom, & Writing by Sheri McConnell et al "The tender guidance from a collection of wise friends in Feminine Writes creates this priceless sourcebook for anyone who writes or dreams of writing. Dozens of voices share insights, advice and tools for writing in a loud chorus of inspiration creating a soulful community of solace and support all writers crave."  ~ Michele Weldon, author of Writing To Save Your Life: How To Honor Your Story Through Journaling, lecturer at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism..

Robert Mckee Story: Substance, Structure, Style,& the Principles of Screenwriting

John Miller. Legends: Women Who Have Changed the World / Through the Eyes of Great Women Writers

Cynthia Morris. Create Your Writer's Life  [ebook from her writer coaching site Original Impulse]
If you are like many struggling writers, you have more ideas and commitments than you have time to write. You live with the constant anxiety of always wanting to write. Yet you never get around to it. So, you live an unfulfilled life, wishing for the time and space to create. We’re all busy these days, with work, family, friends and other obligations. Who has time to write? And then when you do find time, you are confronted with the doubts and fears that are inherent on the creative process. Is it good? Is it unique? Do I really have anything to say? These real and imagined barriers sap the creative urge from us and prevent many of us from actualizing our ideas. Using my own struggles and successes, as well as those of my clients, I have addressed the challenges that keep a writer from the page. This program is designed to get you into the writer’s seat, to work through the inner and outer challenges, and to finish your work. You will emerge more confident and more successful, with completed writing in your hands.
 
 

Joyce Carol Oates. The Faith of a Writer : Life, Craft, Art "Art by its nature is a transgressive act, and artists must accept being punished for it. ... Inspiration and energy and even genius are rarely enough to make 'art': for prose fiction is also a craft, and craft must be learned, whether by accident or design." [Publishers Weekly:]  In 12 short thematic essays and an interview, all previously published, the hyper-prolific author of novels, story collections, plays and poems examines the writing life, aiming to focus on "the process of writing more than the uneasy, uncertain position of being a writer."

Oates advises young writers to read widely, takes a nostalgic glance back at childhood influences, waxes poetic on the joys of running and its relation to writing, and tackles the inner trajectories of the creative process. [amazon.com review] Telling Stories: An Anthology for Writers  by Joyce Carol Oates "Every book, every story, every sentence we read is a part of our preparation for our own writing, so it's wise to choose our reading carefully." Joyce Carol Oates Invisible Writer: A Biography of Joyce Carol Oates by Greg Johnson

 
 
Tillie Olsen.Silences by Tillie Olsen  "..concerned with the relationship of circumstances -- including class, color, sex; the times, climate into which one is born -- to the creation of literature." from review by Jesse Larsen from book: 500 Great Books by Women

Dennis Palumbo Writing from the Inside Out: Transforming Your Psychological Blocks to Release the Writer Within
[reader:] "This is one of those books every writer should have. I got it a week ago, and I just keep re-reading it. I'm a working screenwriter, and it deals with all the stuff that gets in your way, whether you are just starting out, or already "in the business" like me. Very honest about the things that can ball you up, and how to make sure they don't. When you're writing, and it is going great, everything is golden. When it is not going great, anything that can truly help is worth gold, and this book does that."

Sara Paretsky Women on the Case - a collection of short fiction by and about women - "It may be that all writers come to their craft from a sense of being on the margins of life, of seeing the world with an outsider's eye and needing to make sense of it."
 
 

Susan K. Perry Writing in Flow : Keys to Enhanced Creativity  "I don't believe that when you get into a creative place, you're giving up thinking. You're super-thinking, better and with more parts of your mind than you do normally. With a 'busy mind' you're fragmented, you're unfocused, distracted, too many things on your mind. You want to get to a place which is both loose, relaxed, and focused.  "What I found in my studies of flow are two things you need to do to get to this place where .. you can be most creative: to loosen up, and focus in."   [from interview]

 
Jane Piirto, PhD  Understanding Those Who Create

Jane Piirto, PhD. My Teeming Brain: Understanding Creative Writers
"Many writers get into trouble for their writing. When they merely think they are telling the truth, they offend people. This tendency to be frank has not left me as I've aged. I still get into trouble for my writing." [from article "Why Does a Writer Write?", Advanced Development, Jan.96]

Skip Press. Complete Idiot's Guide to Screenwriting

Kevin Rabalais, Jennifer Levassuer. Novel Voices
Chapters and authors include: Walking the Path: Richard Bausch; Recognizing the Ordinary: Charles Baxter
Bringing Empathy to Fiction: Carrie Brown; A Limited, Beautiful Effort: Andre Dubus
Magic in Craft: Stuart Dybek; Invitation to the Story: Richard Ford
Voices in Mind: Ernest J. Gaines //etc//

Tristine Rainer Your Life As Story : Discovering the 'New Autobiography' andWriting Memoir As Literature
[publisher:] "Blending literary scholarship with practical coaching on how to craft short or long life narratives, Rainer traces the history of autobiography from Egyptian inscriptions through its recent evolution on the bestseller lists. Aided by examples from such writers as Maya Angelou, Russell Baker, Richard Rodriguez, Maxine Hong Kingston, Mikal Gilmore, and Carolyn See, among others, Rainer demonstrates how to write character portraits, how to remember what you thought you had forgotten, how to unify a story with thematic conflict, how to write scenes with dialogue and employ other fictional devices, how to use humor and perspective, and how to move through time. The author shares her remarkable techniques for finding the essentials of story structure within your life's scattered experiences. She also shows that autobiography need not be a linear, heroic quest, but may be assembled like a quilt, the pattern gradually emerging."

Judy Reeves A Writer's Book of Days: A Spirited Companion & Lively Muse for the Writing Life
"If you're to be a wordsmith, reading good writing is a must, of course, as is a thesaurus, writes Reeves, who quotes Mark Twain: "The difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." Invoking the Muse is another matter. Reeves tells us that Honore de Balzac kept the creative juices flowing with the help of 50 daily cups of coffee, while T.S. Eliot preferred writing when he had a head cold. Whatever you do, advises Reeves, "don't waste time writing about anything you don't care about...and don't get paralyzed by infinite choice." [from article "Invoking the Muse" by Beverly Beyette, LA Times, Nov2.99]

Gabriele Rico Ph.D. Writing the Natural Way : Using Right-Brain Techniques to Release Your Expressive Powers
Human beings are capable of processing the world in two distinct ways: named Sign and Design mind by Gabriele Rico. The Sign mind (left hemisphere) thinks linearly, parts-specifically, logically, one step at a time, while the Design mind (right hemisphere) thinks in whole patterns, drawing on images, emotional webs, sensory patterns, as in a memory that suddenly flashes into consciousness as a complex whole. Although writing requires Sign mind sequencing, writing also requires global search strategies for what groups together, requiring the Design mind’s non-linear jostling of emotions, memories, ideas. A too-hasty emphasis on Sign mind sequencing often shuts down the search strategies of our Design mind.    > related page:**left brain / right brain

Cathleen Rountree. The Writer's Mentor: A Guide to Putting Passion on Paper
In The Writer‚s Mentor, highly creative woman Cathleen Rountree takes you by the hand and leads you into the soul of a writer and nurtures your every step. This book is an intimate journey into the spiritual and psychological world of writing, complete with valuable tips of the craft as well. A must for every writer‚s bookshelf. Her website is www.Cathleenrountree.com. [review by Gail McMeekin]
 
 
 

Pat Schneider, Peter Elbow. Writing Alone & With Others "When we neglect the artist in ourselves, there is a kind of mourning that goes on  under the surface of our busy lives."     Pat Schneider "Honesty is creative oxygen. Generosity is creative fire. Pat Schneider is a fuse lighter. Her work is gentle, playful, brilliant, and revolutionary. She is the real animal." -- Julia Cameron, author of The Right to Write and The Artist's Way "For anyone who wants to write, Writing Alone and with Others is heartening and practical. It unfolds as the story of one writer's journey, and invites the aspiring writer along with a rich variety of anecdote, exercise and advice, celebrating both difference and difficulty as the gifts they are."-- Janet Burroway, author of Raw Silk and Writing Fiction "I am grateful to Pat Schneider for recognizing that our species is a writing species. If we don't write, it means something in the culture has blocked our natural instinct... [This] helpful, totally personable book shows us how to undo that cultural abuse." -- Carol Bly, author of Beyond the Writers' Workshop: New Ways to Write Creative Nonfiction

 
 
Carolyn See. Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers

Linda Seger Making a Good Writer Great: A Creativity Workbook for Screenwriters   "In any creative endeavor, a knowledge of craft by itself, no matter how sound or thorough, is simply not sufficient to allow for the creation and growth of truly original work. While craft may provide structural tools, it does not address the most basic and universal element of all artistic work-the creative process. Designed not just to awaken creativity but to teach the process of being a creative thinker..."  [interview: Linda Seger]

Gail Sher One Continuous Mistake: Four Noble Truths for Writers
"Gail Sher, the author of eight books of poetry, has taught graduate classes in writing, psychology, and Zen for many years. A long-standing Buddhist, she is one of 93 lay disciples of Shunryu Suzuki-roshi, founder of the first Soto Zen monastery in America. Gail Sher believes that it is essential for writers to establish a daily regimen. In one of her four noble truths, she states: "If writing is your practice, the only way to fail is not to write." Sher salutes the slow but steady improvements that emanate from single-minded effort. She offers helpful advice on reading, overcoming distractions, moving beyond "residues" (inessentials), achieving ping ("the immediate recognition of a truth suddenly grasped and aptly conveyed"), taking care of your environment, sinking into the interior of things, and listening as a form of embrace. "One Continuous Mistake" is highly recommended to writers, especially those who have found spiritual sustenance in the works of Natalie Goldberg. Gail Sher's approach is equally practical, imaginative, and inspiring."  [review: Frederic Brussat, Values & Visions Reviews www.spiritualrx.com]

Jason Shinder Tales from the Couch : Writers on Therapy
'..19 mostly original essays by well-known authors who recount the time they spent in various forms of therapy. All of them agree--some lightheartedly, like poet and naturalist Diane Ackerman, and others with a more somber sense of recognition--that the key to productive therapy is the patient's willingness to become vulnerable. Mura credits the process not only with saving him from "sexual[ly] acting out" and breaking up with his future wife, but with helping him to discover a different approach to writing--one that freed him from writer's block. Several of the other essayists, including fiction writer Meg Wolitzer, playwright Ntozake Shange and novelist Carole Maso, also feel that therapy helped them with their creative processes. Not all of the writers, however, are fans of "the talking cure." Adam Gopnik, in a witty and entertaining piece, describes his therapy as "one of the last, and easily one of the most unsuccessful, psychoanalyses that have ever been attempted." After seeing a therapist who behaved like an editor and another whom he felt he had to amuse with stories, George Plimpton never went back. Despite the variety of therapeutic approaches, from Gopnik's orthodox psychoanalysis to Rebecca Walker's experience with a very supportive and responsive listener, the effectiveness of the healing process appears to be driven by a good match between therapist and patient.'

Steinberg, Sybil, and Bing, Jonathan. Writing for Your Life #3: Authors Talk about the Art of Writing and the Job of Publishing
"This collection of 55 interviews .. offers occasional and tantalizing insight into the craft of writing, though the focus is juicy data about the selling end ... Some of the more well known authors profiled include A.S. Byatt, Jimmy Breslin, Salman Rushdie, Mona Simpson, and Tobias Wolff. Again and again you'll hear (briefly) about incidents of flow, when the author finds the right subject and the work finally begins to take shape quickly. A few speak of their writing habits, as when poet Mark Doty says, "I need to work while I'm fresh and before my head has been stuffed with other language and business." Olivia Goldsmith admits her novels are 'soup, but it's nourishing, well-prepared soup. Sure, I wish it were more, but it pays the rent.'"  [review by Susan Perry, PhD from her site]

Lorna Tedder Reclaiming the Magic: A Writer's Guide to Success "Dubbed by bestselling author Vicki Hinze as therapy rather than merely a writer's guide, Tedder's book introduces readers to the seven deadly syndromes that can maim and eventually kill a writer's spark. Tedder sets out to deliver a handbook for writers that is teeming with self-assessments, hints and useful exercises, a book that helps move writers from the depths of burnout and lack of sales to renewed motivation and purpose."

Milli Thornton. Fear of Writing

Is writing supposed to be fun? Surely, it's better to suffer. It will make our writing real -- give it depth and integrity.
If we're not going to suffer, we should at least work hard. We should be disciplined. ... A writer's not going to have a career to speak of unless she's producing at least 1,000 words per day, right? ... Or so the rumor goes. ///

OK, so you've managed to convince your primal brain stem these negative messages are melodramatic. You are not empty. You are not a zombie from the twilight zone. While waiting in line at the drive-up bank, you even had "an idea" and now you intend to write it down. You're no lightweight. ///

Triumphantly, you break those chains of oppression. You commit some tentative words to paper. One line follows another and "Voila!" you have a paragraph. You resist the urge to reread what you’ve managed to get down. You forge ahead: One paragraph becomes two, and then three, and then five. If the dog doesn't throw up again or the phone doesn't ring, you may even write two pages today. You are doing it! You're writing. You have defied the laws of emptiness. You are a god of creation.  [from Chapter One]

 
 

Eats, Shoots & Leaves : The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss  Who would have thought a book about punctuation could cause such a sensation? Certainly not its modest if indignant author, who began her surprise hit motivated by "horror" and "despair" at the current state of British usage: ungrammatical signs ("BOB,S PETS"), headlines ("DEAD SONS PHOTOS MAY BE RELEASED") and band names ("Hear'Say") drove journalist and novelist Truss absolutely batty.  But this spirited and wittily instructional little volume, which was a U.K. #1 bestseller, is not a grammar book, Truss insists; like a self-help volume, it "gives you permission to love punctuation."  [Publishers Weekly]

 
 
Brenda Ueland If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
[publisher:] "In her 93 remarkable years, Brenda Ueland published six million words. She said she had two rules she followed absolutely: to tell the truth, and not to do anything she didn't want to do. Her integrity shines throughout If You Want to Write, her best-selling classic on the process of writing that has already inspired thousands to find their own creative center. Carl Sandburg called this book "The best book ever written about how to write." Yet Ueland reminds us that 'Whenever I say 'writing' in this book, I also mean anything that you love and want to do or to make.' Ueland's writing and her teaching are made compelling by her feisty spirit of independence and joy."

Christopher Vogler  The Writer's Journey : Mythic Structure for Writers

Alice Walker. The Same River Twice : Honoring the Difficult
I learn that the writer's pen is a microphone held up to the mouths of ancestors and even stones of long ago. That once given permission by the writer -- a fool, and so why should one fear? -- horses, dogs, rivers, and yes, chickens can step forward and expound on their lives.    Alice Walker [quoted in TheWrittenWordEZine@topica.com]

Barbara G. Walker. Feminist Fairy Tales
[Amazon.com review:] "Remember the traditional fairy tales of childhood? Well, Barbara Walker respins them here with a healthy measure of feminist sensibility, whimsy, and inspiration, rewriting the female characters with delightful results. Gone are impossibly beautiful damsels in distress. Enlivened by stunning drawings, Walker's stories richly reveal the real-life morals of fairness, strength, and survival."

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"Women On Writing - From Inspiration to Publication" - free ebook [pdf] from National Association of Women Writers
 

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video: Bird by Bird with Annie: A Film Portrait of Writer Anne Lamott
"This hour-long video follows Lamott around for a year as she gives readings,
raises her son, and participates in church. Topics great and small are covered,
from the difficulty in doing anything with her kinky hair and how she became
the class clown to her nightly drinking and the decision whether to have her
baby or terminate the pregnancy. Along the way she dispenses writing tips,
and if you're struggling with your own work, she is immensely comforting.."

 
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