If You're Writing, Let's Talk: A Road Map Past Writers' Blocks from Page One to The End [Paperback]

Joel Saltzman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 23, 1996

Join author Joel Saltzman and six of his writing students as they journey through a ten-week writing workshop. Discover how they find solutions to their writing difficulties, and get beyond self-doubts and creative dilemmas. The author serves as guide, guru, and writing coach, providing the wisdom, courage, and occasional one-liners that will get you writing your best work ever. You'll learn how to:


• tell a story
• use your faults to maximum advantage
• trust your instincts
• turn chaos into order
• finish what you start!

This refreshing book is sprinkled with numerous quotes from famous writers who share their own insecurities and pearls of wisdom, such as "It's constitutional with me to be anxious as all hell about all of my work. I'll never get over that and I never hope to; I just have to live with it." —Tennessee Williams

About the Author
Joel Saltzman is also the author of If You Can Talk, You Can Write. He has taught at the UCLA Writers' Program, is a former comedian, and currently conducts writing workshops in Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

His If You Can Talk, You Can Write is already a favorite among Amazon.com readers/writers. In this subsequent volume, Mr. Saltzman follows students in one of his L.A. writing workshops over a 10-week period as they struggle,whine, complain, succeed, and make art--everything all of us do when wrestling with the muse. The finished stories are published as an appendix in the back of the book, testimony to E.L. Doctorow's observation that writing is like driving a car cross-country at night; you can only see as far as your headlights, but you can still get all the way there.

Review

Attention aspiring writers! Here you will find guidance and inspiration from someone who's been there.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Prima Lifestyles (December 23, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761508589
• ISBN-13: 978-0761508588
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 3.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,912,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like sitting down with a few friends......, May 25, 2002

By 

Mary Chrapliwy (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: If You're Writing, Let's Talk: A Road Map Past Writers' Blocks from Page One to The End (Paperback)

This excellent book by Joel Saltzman chronicles the trials and tribulations of a group of writing students through a 10 week course with him. This is like a dream course I wish I could have partaken in. The writer's are supposed to write freely during the days they are not in his class -- which takes place at his home rather than an a cold, impersonal classroom. Some of these writers don't try very hard at it and give up easily. Some are gritting their teeth through bouts of writer's block and insecurity. Some are so captivated by their art that they go on to write through their blocks and fears, conquering the challenge writing brings to us all. There are six students. Three master their craft enough to complete their stories, which are published in the back of the book.

At the beginning of this review I said this book was like sitting down with a few friends. Here's why, the class most closely resembles a writer's group in that the participants bring in their work and read it to the group where it then is critiqued by their teacher and their fellow students. In reading this, you recognize things in yourself and your writing that need improvement as well as those that you have accomplished. A couple times you will smile and say, ah, I've done that. These are writers with fears and accomplishments that you can enjoy identifying with. And ... the whole thing is written in a style that makes you feel you are there, an observer of the group.

Now! Buy this book -- sorry mine will never be for sale. Get in gear, and write! This book will make you feel that you can.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the workshop-deprived, something to fill the void, June 24, 1997

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: If You're Writing, Let's Talk: A Road Map Past Writers' Blocks from Page One to The End (Paperback)

Somewhere I read that more neophyte writers are writing well these days thanks to the popularization of writers' workshops. That's more bad news for those of us with inferiority complexes, who want to go somewhere with the scribbling but live wagon trains away from places where workshops flourish. How in the world can we competitively buff our stuff without a seasoned writer and a dozen deadly honest classmates looking on? The next best thing is to rely on self-help writers' books, a burgeoning genre of which this compares with some of the better examples like Anne Lamott's "Bird By Bird" and Rita Mae Brown's "Starting From Scratch." What I like about "If You're Writing, Let's Talk" is its emphasis on the revision process. For all its supercool LA chatter, the book offers a good lesson in critical thinking

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Literally a NOVEL approach to teaching the craft of writing., February 27, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: If You're Writing, Let's Talk: A Road Map Past Writers' Blocks from Page One to The End (Paperback)

Joel Saltzman's new book, If You're Writing, Let's Talk, reads like a novel, full of drama, characters and conflict, even as it lights the way for writers to follow on their own journeys to publication. It's the story of six students in a ten-week writing workshop Saltzman taught and their trek through the problems all writers face. Quotes from famous authors on nearly every page remind us that even the greats face the same problems we all do. As author, teacher, lecturer and sometime comedian, Saltzman has written for television and won awards from the American Film Festival, The Long Island Film Festival and the U.S. Forbes Playwriting Awards