The Mindful Writer
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Find inspiration and insight on writing as a spiritual practice through astute quotes, thoughtful advice, and productive excercises on both mindfulness and craft.
This isn't your typical “how to write” book. Author Dinty W. Moore, a well-respected writing coach and teacher, thoughtfully illuminates the creative process: where writing and creativity originate, how mindfulness plays into work, how to cultivate good writing habits and grow as a person, and what it means to live a life dedicated to writing.
The Mindful Writer features bite-sized essays that will delight and inform not only writers, but also other artists, mediators and mindfulness practitioners. Built around heartening quotes from famous writers and thinkers, it is a resource that readers will turn to again and again for guidance and encouragement.
This edition includes a new introduction exploring the centrality of mindfulness in a writer's practice and craft as well as a selection of writing prompts to get you started on writing mindfully right away.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Advice books for writers are a dime a dozen but Moore (Crafting the Personal Essay) provides a fresh approach with this melding of Buddhist teachings and sage career and life lessons for those who devote their lives to the written word. Built upon the concept of mindfulness the total concentration and openness to what's in front of you Moore divides the book into four sections (just as there are four noble truths in Buddhism). "The Writer's Mind" focuses on the nature of creativity; "The Writer's Desk" on how mindfulness is at work during the act of putting words on paper; "The Writer's Vision" on nurturing good writing habits; and "The Writer's Life," or what it means to be a writer out in the world. Structured as a series of quotes primarily from artists and from Buddhist monks followed by Moore's reflections, each short passage is illuminating on its own and as part of a larger whole. Some quotes will be familiar to seasoned wordsmiths, such as Rainer Maria Rilke's invocation that writers must write or else they will die, but it's lesser known nuggets of wisdom, coupled with Moore's never patronizing advice that ring true. From Faulkner's "kill your darlings" (cutting words is a necessary evil) to Pema Ch dr n's observation that clinging too hard to something "makes you unavailable to hear anything new," this is a compact book of practical and philosophical truths for both novice and veteran writers.
