Becoming a Writer [Paperback]

Dorothea Brande (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 1, 1981

This guide to becoming a writer was originally published in 1934. It focuses not just on plotting techniques or prose style, but on the process of developing the habits and discipline of a writer, with beating writer's block, reading to improve one's writing, and other psychological techniques.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Even in 1934, Dorothea Brande knew that most writers didn't need another book on "technique" -- and this, before so many more would be published. No, she realized, as John Gardner notes in his foreword, "the root problems of the writer are personality problems," and thus her wise book is designed to simply help you get over yourself and start writing, with techniques ranging from a simple declaration to write every day at a fixed time -- no matter what -- to exercises that come close to inventing the TM and self-actualization movements that would follow a few decades later.

About the Author

ROBERT W. HARRIS has been a freelance writer and designer since 1990. He has written twelve books, including DOS, WordPerfect & Lotus Office Companion and When Good People Write Bad Sentences. His books have been main selections in the Small Computer Book Club and the Book-of-the-Month Club.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher (March 1, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874771641
• ISBN-13: 978-0874771640
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.5 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,214 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #48 in Books > Education & Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Publishing & Books > Authorship

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

206 of 210 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars the key to the writer's magic. December 21, 2001

By Sharon Maas ([e-mail])

Format:Paperback

Becoming a Writer is unlike any other writing book on the market today. As Brande says in the introduction, even then, back in 1934, there were several books on writing, and most of them are about the basic riles of storytelling, organisational problems, and so on. This book is different. You will find nothing about plot, dialogue, structure, beginnings, endings here. Nothing about the actual nuts and bolts of writing.
Brande is trying to reach the writer who is not yet sure he/she is a writer. The shy, insecure artist who believes that somehow there is a magic to writing, a magic that other, successful writers have and which has somehow eluded him. And who desperately longs to find a key to that magic.
This book provides that key.
Brande goes on to talk about the artistic temperament, and th eneed to cultivate spontaneity, and innocence of eye, as well as the ability to respond freshly and quickly to new scenes, and to old scenes as though they were new, and to see "traits and characteristics as though each were new-minted from the hand of God".

Stories, Brande says, are formed in the unconscious mind, which must flow freely and richly, bringing at demand all the" treasures of memory, all the emotions, scenes, incidents, intimations of character and relationship" which is stored away beyond our awareness.
This book is about tapping that rich store in the unconscious mind.

These days there are all kinds of workshops and books about creativity, tapping the unconscious, using meditation to reach the inner artist, and so on. In fact, any writer who has dabbled a little bit in the so-called "spiritual arts" would be capable of putting together a how-to treatise on writing, painting, dancing, or any other form of creativity, a how-to-do book on writing just by filling it with Buddhist sound-bites.
The thing about Brande is that she said it first, and said it best. This book is pioneer work; in 1934 George Harrison had not yet gone to India to set off the boom in meditation, and we were not yet informed on the validity of "right-brained" thinking.
She then goes on to talk about the interplay between the unconscious and the conscious mind, for the latter does have a role to play in he process or writing.

The unconscious, says Brande, is shy, elusive, and unwieldy, but it is possible to learn to tap it at will, and even to direct it. The conscious mind, on the other hand, is meddlesome, opinionated, and arrogant, but it can be made subservient to the inborn talent through training. What wonderful, inspiring words! What courage they installed in me, when I first read them!
The rest of the book tells us how, exactly, to tap the wealth of the unconscious mind. She provides exercises and practical examples of what can be done to get the those buried stories richly flowing. She plants that seed of knowledge in your soul which will tell you "This is it", and will catapult you - as if by magic! - out of the slough of despond and into the actual work of a writer.
I read this book in 1981, at a time when I never dared dream of writing a complete novel. Immediately after reading it I began the exercises. They helped. Then I began to write my first novel. What more can I say, except that Brande's advice works. I now have two published novels and a third one under contract, what better recommendation can I give?

109 of 113 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book yet for inspiring the writer August 16, 2000

By Susie Rigsby

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have purchased several books on writing fiction and non-fiction. And I would have to say, most of the books that I have purchased I did find useful in assisting me with what I wanted to know. But after reading Dorothea Brande's "Becoming a Writer", I felt the warmest type of inspiration. Brande came from the 30s era when she didn't have to contend with the computer, editors that only read two or three pages of a book before they throw it in the trash pile, or the pressures of a fast moving market. Yet, she knew full well what every writer experiences and needs to be told. And she told it, quite well, in this book. I loved it. I keep it next to my computer for reference from time to time. I recommend this wonderful book to anyone that has intentions of writing, no matter what area they are trying to enter. It is just great.

95 of 103 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars essential reading January 20, 2000

By Sharon-the-mermaid

Format:Paperback

I bought this book by "accident" when I was in New York in 1981. I cried when I read it, for I KNEW I was going to be a writer, a thing to grand for me to ever even imagine. It took a few years but last year I had my first novel published in England (of marriageable age): several translations, and huge advances. This is the book that started me off. I owe everything to it. Every aspiring author should read it.