| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
184 of 188 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the key to the writer's magic.,
By Sharon Maas (smaas@btinternet.com) (England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Becoming a Writer (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. 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 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!
105 of 109 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best book yet for inspiring the writer,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Becoming a Writer (Paperback)
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.
88 of 96 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
essential reading,
This review is from: Becoming a Writer (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.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|