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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
Really lovely, and the ideas are evergreen even if the language is vintage.
inspiring
relaxing
I've always loved books about writing, and this one has now my favorite.
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
slow-paced
Brenda Ueland is the Dale Carnegie of How-to-Write books. Her wisdom is wise, always a good reminder, but nothing she advocates is exactly revelatory or even directly actionable. Still, its an encouraging read that does hit the nail on the head again and again.
If you want to write creatively and yet find yourself stuck at times, spend a week reading a few pages per day of "If You Want to Write." I especially enjoyed the last three or four chapters. She also provides some superbly inspiriting quotes by both Vincent Van Gogh and Anton Chekov.
Worth reading but if you need craft tips, you won't find them in this book.
If you want to write creatively and yet find yourself stuck at times, spend a week reading a few pages per day of "If You Want to Write." I especially enjoyed the last three or four chapters. She also provides some superbly inspiriting quotes by both Vincent Van Gogh and Anton Chekov.
Worth reading but if you need craft tips, you won't find them in this book.
inspiring
yes this book technically took me 16 months to read but that’s mostly because i found it too depressing to read while i was in grad school because it does its job very well— it motivated and inspired me to write freely, and when i didn’t have the time to do so i didn’t want to read it and not be able to act on that impulse. i love that this book is so old and still so applicable, i found ueland’s advice really helpful and invigorating for the most part.
informative
inspiring
reflective
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
I purchased this book in 1987 when the Quality Paperback Book Club offered it. My then lover and mentor ridiculed the title, even as they claimed to support my aspirations - and I didn't read it at the time or continue writing, but lugged it from one home after another until now - 2025 - when I felt I needed inspiration to write, finally, in my retirement. Because time has changed our world, this book needs to be read with a great deal of patience and tolerance.
I wish I had read it then, before mindfulness had taken over our lives in the past 20 years. It is amazing that she thought the way she did in 1938 - think pre-World War when Nazi Germany and all its dehumanizing restrictions on its own citizens were well established. In the current context, this type of open-hearted encouraging words are too much part of a society that is characterized by a lot of spiritual bypassing. I found it difficult not to dismiss what was truly out-of-the-box advice at the time because in the intervening eighty-plus years these thoughts have become internet slushies.
Add to that the religious overtone, the unfortunate focus on male artists only - Virginia Wolfe, George Eliot, Jane Austen do come to mind as writers who had something to say about writing - of course the use of the words he and him to include us all, and a belittling classism of the students described, and I found it a tough slug - but it was a different time and even in 1983 none of these things would have seemed problematic. Some things just don't stand the test of time and a new edition should be heavily edited.
I did make myself 10 notes of what is important when writing, and believe these will help keep me from writing the "wrong" way. I would like to have met her as a teacher when I needed encouragement and before the critical voices in my head - and my life - deterred me from something I really wanted to do.
I wish I had read it then, before mindfulness had taken over our lives in the past 20 years. It is amazing that she thought the way she did in 1938 - think pre-World War when Nazi Germany and all its dehumanizing restrictions on its own citizens were well established. In the current context, this type of open-hearted encouraging words are too much part of a society that is characterized by a lot of spiritual bypassing. I found it difficult not to dismiss what was truly out-of-the-box advice at the time because in the intervening eighty-plus years these thoughts have become internet slushies.
Add to that the religious overtone, the unfortunate focus on male artists only - Virginia Wolfe, George Eliot, Jane Austen do come to mind as writers who had something to say about writing - of course the use of the words he and him to include us all, and a belittling classism of the students described, and I found it a tough slug - but it was a different time and even in 1983 none of these things would have seemed problematic. Some things just don't stand the test of time and a new edition should be heavily edited.
I did make myself 10 notes of what is important when writing, and believe these will help keep me from writing the "wrong" way. I would like to have met her as a teacher when I needed encouragement and before the critical voices in my head - and my life - deterred me from something I really wanted to do.
Content Warnings
Minor: Ableism, Body shaming, Misogyny, Classism
Started with the paperback, finished with the audiobook — the audio version is even more fun. The content is inspiring and the narrator is enthusiastic. Puts really energy into the message of letting go of our BS and getting creative.