Timeless Advice for Developing Your Creative Spirit! Everybody is talented, original and has something important to say,' says an encouraging Brenda Ueland in the first chapter of her classic, If You Want to Write. First published in 1938, her commentary is as relevant and timeless as when she first put pen to paper nearly 70 years ago. Consider these witty chapter titles: The imagination works slowly and quietly
Be careless, reckless! Be a lion, be a pirate, when you write
Why women who do too much housework should neglect it for their writing
You do not know what is in you-an inexhaustible fountain of ideas >In studying the process of writing creatively, Ueland has filled each page of her book with a timeless treasure of wisdom. Her theories and observations, delivered in a writing voice that's fresh and modern, are probably more recognized and believable than they were when she first wrote about them. In lamenting the loss of the creative impulse, she says, 'How does the creative impulse die in us? The English teacher who wrote fiercely on the margin of your theme in blue pencil' Trite, rewrite,' helped to kill it. Families are great murders of the creative impulse, particularly husbands. Older brothers sneer at young brothers and kill it. There is that American pastime known as 'kidding,' with the result that everyone is ashamed about showing the slightest enthusiasm or passion or sincere feeling about anything.' Do your writing life a favor and add If You Want to Write to your library. Poet Carl Sandburg proclaimed it, 'The best book ever written about how to write.' At 180 pages, it is a book worth reading again and again.
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