Still Writing
The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life
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4.5 • 20 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
This national bestseller from celebrated novelist and memoirist Dani Shapiro is an intimate and eloquent companion to living a creative life. Through a blend of memoir, meditation on the artistic process, and advice on craft, Shapiro offers her gift to writers everywhere: a guide of hard-won wisdom and advice for staying the course. In the ten years since the first edition, Still Writing has become a mainstay of creative writing classes as well as a lodestar for writers just starting out, and above all, an indispensable almanac for modern writers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this hybrid guide, meditation, and memoir, novelist and memoirist Shapiro (Devotion) shares thoughts and strategies on the act of writing and the writing life. Focusing on the creative process itself, Shapiro divides her book into three parts Beginnings, Middles, and Ends and sprinkles thoughts in from all corners. For example, "Beginnings" contains ideas on how to begin a piece, as well as how to shore up self-confidence when young and just starting out. Unfortunately, the book suffers from a dearth of specifics in relation to craft. Concrete nuggets, such as an anecdote about unconsciously overusing the word "muffled" a repetition Shapiro thinks indicates a lack of closeness to her characters are the exception, not the rule. More prevalent are inspirational statements such as: "I reach for treasures in this underwater landscape. Ones that only I can see.... Courage is all about feeling the fear and doing it anyway." Many of the clich s do contain truth "It is the job of the writer to say, look at that. To point. To shine a light" but little in the book distinguishes it from a crowded field.
Customer Reviews
Writers Voice
For anytime I reread my work, the kind and encouraging voice I will always hear is Dani’s. She knows the artist’s struggles through and through and still finds a way to help one realize that it’s common , it’s normal and we have to keep pushing.
Absolute Page Turner
Loved this book. Thanks so much for this creation!