Book Recommendation: Use Your Words!
Quite simply put, I've had difficulties getting myself to the writing desk, or the kitchen table, or the coffee shop--- wherever it is I am planning to be to make the act of committing words to screen--- and Cathy Deveny's book has been truly helpful in combating my procrastination. If you are a writer of any kind, I could not recommend it more highly.
I'd not heard of Cathy Deveny until reading an emphatic review stating quite plainly that this book does what it is intended to do: help anyone who wants to write more to do that. Cathy is a successful Australian comedian with a very straightforward and refreshing approach, and her book is easily available for e-readers at the bargain price of $7.99 Amazon.com. People who insist on paper will have to pay around $25, as the book hasn't made it to American publishers as of yet.
It's full title is Use Your Words: A Myth Busting, No Fear Approach To Writing, and while she makes no claims that the book will make you a better writer, if the act of writing more, and gaining experience through that process makes one a better writer, then this book will make those who stay open and receptive to it better writers. But please understand, the only point of this book is to help its reader get over the issues that keep him or her from the act of writing, and get on with it. The fact that Deveny achieves this in such a readable and humorous way just makes it all the more enticing.
I'd not heard of Cathy Deveny until reading an emphatic review stating quite plainly that this book does what it is intended to do: help anyone who wants to write more to do that. Cathy is a successful Australian comedian with a very straightforward and refreshing approach, and her book is easily available for e-readers at the bargain price of $7.99 Amazon.com. People who insist on paper will have to pay around $25, as the book hasn't made it to American publishers as of yet.
It's full title is Use Your Words: A Myth Busting, No Fear Approach To Writing, and while she makes no claims that the book will make you a better writer, if the act of writing more, and gaining experience through that process makes one a better writer, then this book will make those who stay open and receptive to it better writers. But please understand, the only point of this book is to help its reader get over the issues that keep him or her from the act of writing, and get on with it. The fact that Deveny achieves this in such a readable and humorous way just makes it all the more enticing.
I will make one suggestion which I don't believe Cathy does. When you finish reading it (aside from the obvious "get to writing") at your earliest convenience, go back to page one and re-read it. Even if it's just to skim it the second time. Even if you just flip open to a random page and read a paragraph or two. Because as helpful as these words are, the glow of them will only last so long, and you will need to re-engage with it in order to keep the good vibes and the words flowing.