Will I love If You Want to Write?

I’ve long been inspired by this manual for fiction writers on what makes good writing.

“Be a lion, a pirate when you write” is one of the chapter headings, dealing with the boldness a writer needs. It also gets into how detailed specificity on character and emotion taken from real-life observation makes a good piece of writing shine.

Many of us are a bit afraid of stepping out and trying something new. That applies especially with creative work. “I’m just not that good,” we tell ourselves—or voices from our past tell us. Brenda Ueland was a long-time Chicago creative writing instructor, and her little book is strong encouragement (and a bit of a kick in the pants) about risk-taking and learning about our super-powers in the process.

Ueland firmly believed that anyone can write, that everyone is talented, original, and has something important to say. In this inspirational book, she encourages those of us with no elite education or literary culture to get down to writing our stories in our own voice, offering tips and strategies to ease us through the process. ‘Get out of your own way – stop trying to write and just let what you have to say come out.’ (I love that. I often need to get out of my own way.)

Her encouragement is invigorating, empowering her students to write… show more.