The Writer's Home Companion: An Anthology of the World's Best Writing Advice, From Keats to Kunitz
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The Writer's Home Companion: An Anthology of the World's Best Writing Advice, From Keats to Kunitz
A Boston Globe Bestseller Writing is a solitary sport--but none of us can do it without good company at crucial moments. This spirited collection of inspiring and useful essays and exercises on the craft of writing is the next best thing to having an experienced writer at your side. These twenty-nine pieces, more than half of which have never been published in book form, include selections as unusual and diverse as behaviorist B. F. Skinner's "How to Discover What You Have to Say"; Brett Candlish Millier's investigation of the seventeen drafts of Elizabeth Bishop's poem "One Art"; Ursula Le Guin's "Where Do You Get Your Ideas From?"; Anne Eisenberg's "E-Mail and the New Epistolary Age"; and Nancy Mair's "The Writer's Thin Skin and Faint Heart." Other contributors include Gloria Naylor, Stanley Kunitz, Bernard Shaw, Natalie Goldberg, Anne Tyler, Rita Dove, Peter Elbow, and Gail Godwin.
There are a lot of compendia of writing advice around. The Writer's Home Companion strikes a deeper chord than many because its editor, Joan Bolker--who's also a psychologist--used to teach writers at Harvard as well as counsel them. Hence, many of these essays get inside the writer's head and heart: Anne Tyler recounts her "distractibility," Gail Godwin and Bolker herself examine those internal "watchers" that keep us from our best work, poet Patsy Cumming shares a terrific system for getting started, and manuscript reproductions from the likes of George Bernard Shaw and Henry James show us the struggles aren't ours alone.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
Best of its Kind:
Bolker's approach is tailored specifically for writers and those who want to write. She hits all the difficult issues, offers many perspectives, and overall encourages and supports the serious writer. This is a book to pick up if you want to write, and a book to consult whenever you have trouble writing. Having worked for years as a psychological counselor for blocked writers, Bolker knows her topic and shares her insight. This collection is, imho, the best of its kind.
Another Dog.:
I wish I had one positive thing to say about this book. But nothing comes to mind.
Uneven, some good, some rehash of the familiar:
I am reading this book at the same time that I am reading Elizabeth Berg's book on writing: "Escaping into the Open". Both books deal with the process of going from beginning writing, to publishing. Berg speaks from her own experience. Bolker uses an anthology approach, gathering articles from several sources, and grouping them according to theme. Which is effective. However, if you've read any books on writing, some of the articles you'll find here will be too familiar, e.g. Natalie Goldberg's article. On... more info
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