Customer Reviews

The I Ching for Writers: Finding the Page Inside You

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Plenty of spiritual guides have been written on the subject of the I Ching; but none with the specialized focus of Sarah Jane Sloane's The I Ching For Writers: Finding The Page Inside You, which tells how to apply I Ching concepts to writer's block and inspirational paths. Each of the I Ching's sixty-four hexagrams is interpreted by Sloane from years of study of over fifty translations, and synthesized into comments pertaining to writer's struggles with words. The I Ching For Writers: Finding The Page Inside You evolves into a delightful, inspirational cure for writer's block under Sloane's careful applications and analysis.

To cast the I Ching, you throw three pennies six times to arrive at one of 64 hexagrams. For each hexagram, Sloane offers an essay with writing advice, suggested writing exercises, and a prediction of how your writing will proceed. You need to read the instructions for finding the right hexagram carefully; if you don't, you might become confused as a previous reviewer was.

This is a fun way to introduce serendipity into your writing. Sloane's advice is both practical and inspiring. I particularly enjoyed her essays "Overseeing the True Way" and "Acknowledge a Great Vision That You Already Possess."

Of course sometimes the hexagrams you cast may not be what you want to read about. You might find the selected essay either inapplicable or downright unpleasant. But part of the charm of the I Ching experience is in considering how the hexagram might apply, and seeing how you can learn from taking a new perspective.

I checked this out from the library but I'll be buying a copy as it's a fun resource for those times when my writing needs an injection of insight. A friend of mind also recommends The Observation Deck: A Tool Kit for Writers (Past & Present), as a way of introducing randomness into the writing process.

Sarah Sloane's *I Ching for Writers* is a real treat! The advice Sloane offers is informed by proven writing pedagogy (theory on the teaching of writing), and the discussion is clear, practical and accessible. Maybe most important, the author has a terrific sense of humor!

I loved the writing exercises so much that I assigned the text in a college course for advanced writers. My students had great fun throwing the pennies and with the wonderfully creative writing prompts.

Highly recommended!

I've got or read probably a dozen books on writer's block. Some are useful, some aren't. It looked like fun, but there's a few problems with this one. For one thing, it takes a bit of time.

1. Cast 3 pennies.
2. Record the combination of heads and tails as "broken" or "unbroken" lines, including "floating" lines.
3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 six more times.
4. Assign numeric values to each line (6, 7, 8, or 9) depending on the type of line it is: floating yin, unbroken, broken, or floating yang.
5. Match up the upper 3 lines and lower 3 lines to a chart in the back, and where the two sets intersect is the number of the hexagram. (Those floating lines aren't accounted for here, so I assume those are treated as unbroken lines. She never really says.)
6. Look up the hexagram.

As if this isn't complex enough, it now gets trickier. After all that effort, the hexagram may not even apply.

For example, for Hexagram 64, my fourth line is a 6. But the book only describes what it means if it's a 7, 8, or 9. So how do I interpret that? Further, Hexagram 64 is all about completion and celebrating being near the end of your work-in-progress (because this is the last hexagram in the group). Except I'm not near the end or completion. I'm nearer the beginning, so this isn't helping at all.

This book may be fine for some people. It just wasn't for me.