6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Book on Writing and Overcoming Writer's Block, April 13, 2008
This review is from: The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write (Paperback)
Mark David Gerson, author of the award-winning visionary novel, The Moon Quest, shares his secrets as a creative writer in this phenomenal guide to overcoming writer's block and unleashing your creative potential. Gerson offers numerous helpful tips, processes and visualizations to get the right words down on the page and to make those words flow without struggle.
As a creative writing instructor for over fifteen years, Gerson shares the writing techniques he teaches in his popular seminars, and which have made him an award-winning writer. He includes numerous visualizations (also available on a CD) to encourage people to unlock their creative potential. Gerson tells us not to worry about what we are writing but simply to keep writing even if all we can write is "I don't know what to write" over and over. The important thing is to keep the pen moving.
While some of Gerson's techniques are commonplace in creative writing courses, what he excels at is encouraging the writer to believe the book desired can be written. In fact, Gerson believes that book already exists and the writer simply needs to learn how to relax and stop the resistance that is preventing those words from getting onto the page. Gerson analyzes in depth the real reason for writer's block, how to overcome it, and how to channel that resistance into energy that leads to words on paper. The book's numerous short essays remind us to listen to our voices, to acknowledge that the story and characters know where they want to go, and that there are no perfect rules but that you can write however you want and it will be perfect for you.
[...].
Read "The Voice of the Muse" and you too will be ready to answer the call to write!
- Tyler R. Tichelaar, author of The Marquette Trilogy
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Your muse is closer than you think and ready to help, April 26, 2008
This review is from: The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write (Paperback)
When I was a child, muses were depicted in books as emaciated women who appeared to be chronically dying of consumption. For the tough-as-nails writer in training, this image was more than a few frail breaths shy of fetching.
English teachers, dreamy writers, lunatics and others in need of a good sun tan told me that a writer's first duty is communing with his muse. As a journalist's son, I found it hard to imagine slamming down drinks after work with newsroom veterans discussing resorting to a muse as a reliable source.
Plus, I was already new-age infected. I believed then, as now, that within the great illusion of time, that I had already written and/or was currently writing books in alternate universes which needed to be translated into the argot of our current reality. It's a many worlds quantum thing.
The writer's prime directive, the ground-level imperative of his/her existence, is manifesting what already exists in the dream worlds of other universes and making it real here. This imperative is as basic as breathing and to ignore it leaves most of us a few syllables short of sane on a good day.
Shunning consumptive images when it came to methods and sources, I've spent a muse-free life stealing stories out of the cosmic library.
Imagine my shock, when I found myself buying a copy of a book called "The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write" by Mark David Gerson. I figured it might make a nice gift for somebody. Turning past the copyright page, I read: "Writing is alchemy...truly a tool if wizards and sorcerers. It's the magic wand, the incantation, the wave of the hand that transforms all."
I've always believed that, not that I mentioned it to the guys down at the local watering hole.
As I read on, I began getting that shivery feeling that comes upon me when non-alcoholic spirits are loose in the room. Worse yet, it was all deja vu for while Gerson was saying what I've always thought (except for the muse part), he was casting a spell while doing it, one that I should warn you is the spell only an advanced wizard can cast, so if you're a writer, read this book at your own risk; or if you're not a writer but have thought of becoming one, then also read this book at your own risk because once you're enchanted it will be too late to turn back. Heaven help you then.
Gerson believes stories pre-exist, waiting hidden away in dreams to come alive. But while I've worked more or less as a blacksmith hammering them into this world, he provides ways to tune into the "muse stream" whereupon life flows onto the page like a warm sweet river.
Have I had a muse all this time? Perhaps. Perhaps I've tried to maintain too firm a hand on the creative process, again and again imposing logic in between my intuition and the page. I am very strong willed and stubborn (it's a Scot's thing), so with a few drinks and a fair effort, I can still throw Gerson's book in the trash where it won't harm me. I can still punch my prospective muse's lights out.
But I don't think I will, for the muse-stream writer Gerson's urges us to become represents the "me" that I wanted to be. Surrendering to "outside" forces has never been my strong point as necessary as it is, but Gerson wants us to surrender to the story and allow it to manifest into the world.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An important tool for writers of ALL levels!, June 16, 2009
This review is from: The Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write (Paperback)
I've searched the many book stores and online forums, but nothing compares to Mark David Gerson's Voice of the Muse!
The book doesn't just help overcome the horrors of writer's block in initial writing, but the editing process as well.
The book helped me finish the last few chapters of my book and put me in a calm, and almost meditative, state to begin editing. The book takes a very practical and honest approach to the entire writing process; write now, write while the 'muse' is at work, and worry about editing LATER!
I can't wait to take on my next project knowing i have this book on hand!
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