Customer Reviews

Bang the Keys

5 star:		(14)
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2 star:		(1)
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This is a book for all writers--from experienced professionals to someone who's always thought she had a story to tell. "Bang the Keys" is filled with clever advice and--added bonus!--it is wonderfully entertaining to read. I don't think I'm the only professional writer who finds it hard to get started on a project or whose mind periodically seizes up. Dearman's really inventive and she's a delightful companion, even when you only know her through the written page. Her ideas for getting your brain working are playful in the best way, because writing should be fun, shouldn't it? I wish I lived in New York and could be in one of her classes, but since I can't, this book is the next best thing. For someone just starting out as a writer, whether hoping it will become a career or just a source of joy in life, Dearman offers wise, unintimidating guidance. For those of us who have been doing this for decades, she's a welcome reminder of the playfulness and creativity at the heart of what we do. A great book.

In grad school I learned a tremendous amount about the craft of writing. But what of actually sitting down to write? Overcoming anxiety that I didn't have what it takes? Resisting the urge to check facebook instead of writing? Bang the Keys covers all that territory, and exuberantly so. Replete with wit and whimsy, the book is entertaining enough just to read cover to cover. But for all its wry references (everything from The Simpsons to Milan Kundera), the real value of Bang the Keys is in its wisdom, all couched in doable exercises and an overall regimen that can't fail (if followed). Many exercises are geared toward character- and narrative-driven writing projects. My current project is lyrical in nature, so these exercises did not apply to me. But following the spirit if not the letter of Dearman's advice, I have successfully maneuvered through those doldrums that any writer hits after the initial manic energy of beginning a new project wears off. Now I'm over halfway through a first draft, at work steadily and unmanically, and I have Bang the Keys to thank for keeping me focused.

Truly reverent regarding the creative process, and intelligently irreverent regarding damn near everything else, Jill Dearman's Bang The Keys is a refreshing, inspiring, well-organized writing workshop in a book. Jewish mama, high school BFF, and drill sergeant by turns, Dearman demonstrates compassion for the struggles faced by writers and offers not tea and sympathy, but real tools and real strategies for living in this world and doing our work. Because, as Dearman makes clear, it is in our work that we find our hope and our health, our solace and our joy.

Dearman's informal, almost winking-at-the-camera at times, style recreates the workshop atmosphere, and the book would work well as a writers' group guide. The exercises are the strength of the book, and taken as a collection of writing assignments, these exercises transform the workshop into a playground. Dearman has done what any therapist or coach would suggest - make the writer want to write. Seduce us with writing, make us remember the pure joy of creating, and then make sure we have fun with it!

Dearman's intimacy with the gamut of formats - from playwriting to poetry - is clear. The BANG formula is adaptable and responsive to creative endeavors, regardless of format. Dearman's enthusiasm for and generosity towards other writers is also clear, and the role this giving back plays is an important one. Finding ways to feed the creative community is an important challenge for all of us - finding a way to do this in a demanding and overstimulating world isn't easy, but that makes it all the more valuable. Be inspired. Buy this book, read it and share it with your friends. And then go bang the keys!

Writing coach Jill Dearman is the best company any neophyte or veteran writer could wish for, day in and day out, during a trying writing project. In her new book, Bang the Keys, she is at times the stern disciplinarian, at times the loving, maternal cheerleader and at times the sympathetic best friend, roles which all suit her equally well. Bursting with literary knowhow, as well as knowledge of the pain and struggles writers face every day, she will (and does) do whatever it takes to keep writers' novels, stories, screenplays and memoirs from going off the rails. It is clear from this book that her mission in life is to love writers, encourage them and keep them and their work moving forward.

My favorite parts of this book are its wide-ranging references to high and low culture (from Jorge Luis Borges to Billie Jean King; from Jung to Seinfeld) and the irrepressible, goofy voice which keeps bursting through the sound advice, with words and phrases like `kookadelic,' `kuddos, kiddo(s),' references to 1980s sitcoms and endearing anecdotes from her own life and struggles.

As another reviewer has written, this is a workshop in a book. It is a workshop about overcoming your blocks, getting started, keeping at it and putting in your hours. As she says, "Get it on the page. You can make it beautiful later." Jill Dearman has read a lot and written a lot, and she has read and thought about writing a lot. Now, in this book, she shares with us the fruits of her years of thinking, reading and writing. Not to mention that it is jam-packed with nifty exercises you have never seen anywhere else that will get you thinking about your characters and story line in innovative ways.

This is a worthy volume to have by your side while writing, next to Julia Cameron (The Artist's Way), Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones) and Rilke (Letters to a Young Poet).

This book not only teaches you to organize your strongest ideas and thoughts to paper(or computer)but also takes the "coaching" to new levels with great anecdotes. If I were to be labeled, Id probably be between "the Distractionist" and "the Perfectionist". I'm a struggling comic book artist and aspiring writer who didn't know how to give my stories the proper boost.This book has helped me to take my stories to a higher level.

Writing, whether it's the next 'Great American Novel' or an article for a local magazine or newsletter, begins with an idea that must be arranged into an orderly presentation that will interest, involve, and engage the reader. That's why "Bang The Keys" by writing coach and editor Jill Dearman is such an invaluable instructional resource for the novice writer, with an enduring and practical value for even the more experienced author. Beginning with a four-step writing process; then proceeding with setting writing hours and goals, "Bang The Keys" covers such diverse factors, tools, and aids as the use of a 'writing buddy', meditation, writing journals, the natural structure of a story, utilizing dreams, writing an ending and working through a story backwards to the beginning, meeting deadlines, and so much more. Enhanced with an extensive ten page resource guide and a comprehensive index, "Bang The Keys" is a thoroughly 'user friendly', highly recommended and highly rewarding read.

If you are having some challenges getting your writing done (and don't we all?), and need some help along the way, this book is for you. I first met Jill Dearman when I was looking for an editor for my book and came across her ad: "Nurturing but whip-cracking, well-connected, well-published and energetic NYC coach/editor will help you unleash the true fabulosity in your projects and bring them to fruition in the real world before depression or drink destroy your nerve." I couldn't resist her authenticity and sense of humor. What I found is that both Jill as a coach/editor and her amazing book, Bang the Keys, fully embodies this description of who she is and how she can help you get your writing from your heart and your head to "fruition." That's what she and her book have done for me. I find myself returning again and again to her book when I need inspiration, motivation, and guidance to complete my next project. And it works! I continue to be motivated, inspired, and challenged to plow through the resistance that continues to appear and just get the job done. I am grateful to have found both Jill and her book. Highly recommended.

Jill Dearman offers the inspiration to GET IT DONE. Those of us who are artists in any capacity take our theory, our craft, our educations, our techniques, and all other nuggets of knowledge and inspiration and face the challenge of turning it into something. Bang the Keys offers practical and sensible advice for churning the conceptual into the tangible. Dearman's guidance has easily translated into my work as a filmmaker whose time is parceled out to children, a day job, and other obligations. Not only has Bang the Keys wisdom helped me to carve out time for my craft but it has reminded me to love and nourish the fruits of that craft. Dearman's advice finds applicability in many creative fields; I have recommended the book to writers, filmmakers, and artists alike.

I must add that after attending a Bang workshop and reading the book, I've found motivation to return to my own writing practice and to make what has been years of regular - almost daily - writing into a first book project.

I was on the fence: buy this book by Jill, or seek out a writing coach in the Midwestern college town where I reside and pay her to help me. I bought the book, and I made the right choice. My bookshelf, if alive, would groan like a union bricklayer under the weight of a dozen years worth of "how to" books on writing. If I read "show, don't tell" one more time, I'm going to tear my hair out! But here, with Bang The Keys, I have stumbled onto a book with a difference--here, Ms. Dearman condenses years of writer's workshops into a strong distillate of fabulous advice, prompts, mnemonics and cues that can help a writer get past the blank page and onto their written work of art. You won't find instruction on punctuation, POV and other "nuts and bolts" of grammar here. You also won't find just a pom-pom girl cheerleader that has you recite "I think I can, I think I can" until you are frustrated and blue from the effort, but still with a plain white computer screen. (There is a famous book on writing that really is like this--I won't name the famous "writing coach" author, but the fluff in that book will suffocate you if you let it!)

Jill strikes a balance between the two extremes of hardcore, slap-you-on-the-wrists-like-a-school-marm grammar patrol, and the cheerleader who wants to catch you in frighteningly thins arms as you fly off the human pyramid (and usually land on your head!). Jill's wisdom comes from years of coaching writers, and it's so painfully evident that she possesses the skills to know exactly what you're thinking as you are thinking it, oh dear writer. Like Kris Kringle, she knows when you've been bad or good, she knows what you've been thinking, she knows that you've been surfing the net (and writing reviews for Amazon), and she knows how to get you on track and on target again. I particularly enjoy her friendly, witty, sometimes sardonic and always engaging, writing style. So, be good for goodness sakes, and Bang will help you.

I have never meet Jill, and hopefully someday I will have the pleasure. She is a unique person who helps writers from a unique perspective. I learned a lot from this book, and suggest it strongly for writers who are thinking about hiring a writing coach, or for writers in a workshop already who might use this book as a syllabus for moving your group ahead--a chapter a week keeps the doctor away. The doctor of self-doubt, procrastination and distraction, that is. Well worth the small cost, five stars for Bang The Keys.

Jill Dearman's approach to writing, detailed in her writing-workshop-in-a-book book, is as kinetic as the title: "Bang the Keys." She offers her readers (and writers) a profoundly proactive, manageable, and encouraging plan to finishing any number of writing projects. Her prose is infused with down-to-earth humor and intimate expertise which makes its counsel all the more convincing (who wants to read a boringly written book on writing?). She manages to come off maternal in her gentle yet forceful prodding (like all good mothers), and offers solid and creative methods to dealing with writer's block, discipline, and the general misery that surrounds the writing of a book. I used "Bang the Keys" as inspiration to transform a dissertation into a book manuscript, and subsequently as an MFA-in-a-book that has helped me approach the end of my first novel. It is most certainly a gem of a book! Grab it and start banging those keys.