Customer Reviews

Writing Alone and with Others

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Most of my writing is done with a thick and stubby pencil on a piece of 2 x4 lumber -- I'm a carpenter and for years, once or twice a day, when I measured or cut a piece of wood that was about to disappear into the framing of a house, I'd write a little something on it. Sometimes just words that I like: "crystal," "ampitheater," "roar." Other times a line or two about the day, or the place. My wife bought this book in Middlebury three weeks ago, I've read it every night (I'm a slow reader) and I'm grateful to the woman who wrote it. She understands and loves words. I think she wrote this book for people who want to write and publish on paper, but, take it from me, her ideas work just as well on lumber.

If you are a writer on a tight budget and are considering which resource book to purchase out of the overwhelming sea of writing books, you need not looking any further. Writing Alone and With Others is an update of The Writer as an Artist by Pat Schneider, founder of the Amherst Writers and Artists Press and workshop method in Amherst, Massachusetts.

This book is chock full of advice on the craft of writing for those who are struggling with discipline and is an excellent resource for those who are in writing/critique groups or those who want to start a writing group. Some of the areas covered are fear, discipline, the development and growth of the craft, voice, and the approach and methodology of group writing. In a heading entitled Why Keep a Journal? it is stressed that one's life has significance and is part of history of the world. In Finding Your Own Voice, writers are encouraged to reclaim their "original voice", the one used as a child, in finding the writing voice. There is a brilliant piece from Pat's own life where caught up in life's woes, she allows herself a reprieve from writing, only to find that in that suspended state her creativity erupts forth naturally of its own volition. The exercises throughout the book are provocative and stimulating and work well individually or in group settings.

I had the pleasure of attending Pat's book launch and workshop for the book earlier this month in Berkeley where, at Pacific School of Religion, she holds an annual writing workshop. Upon my arrival home, I immediately began to devour this great resource and have been picking it up every day. This is the one writing book that should be purchased this year.

Dera Williams

So many writing books are "dumbed down," so that an experienced writer winds up feeling they cannot get much from them. This book is the opposite. It is smart, sometimes funny, well illustrated with excerpts from well-known writers as well as from participants in Schneiders workshops.

Writing Alone and With Others is filled with wise advice from a writer who has literally "been there." Schneider is honest with her readers, describing her childhood and early beginnings, using them to illustrate how writing can transform a life.

Her techniques are gentle, yet incredibly inspiring, leaving the reader longing to write, but almost unwilling to put her book down in order to pick up a pen and paper!

There is also a chapter about writing workshops for underserved populations that details the amazing impact this technique can have on those who are often "voiceless" in our society.

The book is organized so that writers working alone and those writing as part of a group can find exactly what they are looking for. It also offers sage advice for those who want to start writing workshops based on Schneider's Amherst Writers and Artists method. And, in the back, are a variety of exercises to help jump start individuals and groups in the writing process.

This is not a simple book, nor is it easy in the sense that you can read through it in an evening. It is full of information that takes some time to process--that is a welcome change for writers who have been "at it" awhile, and are tired of entry-level how-to books.

Writing Alone and With Others is a must for those who are serious about their craft and about sharing their passion for writing with those around them. I would--and often do--recommend it to absolutely anyone I know with an interest in the written word. It is a beautiful, charismatic, and emotionally magnetic work.

Ever read an interview with a famous author where the author says something to the effect of, "I couldn't have made it without my friend/my reader/my significant other," and wondered how you could get yourself one of those? Well now you can.

Pat Schneider is the writing buddy to beat all writing buddies. She's warm, funny and incredibly helpful. With years of experience both as a writer and mentor for other writers, she knows exactly how to help you untie the knots of doubt and fear and take your writing to the next level.

In addition, this book provides loads of writing exercises and wise encouragment for helping you to start your own writing group. And if you do follow her advice for starting your own writers' support group, you may just find yourself that special writing buddy(s) in the flesh, I did, though you still won't ever want to turn loose of this book.

Highly recommended.

It was only two or three pages into the introduction of this book before I realized that Pat Schneider had given me the one book on writing I had looked for my entire life.

The great barrier between each of us and our own unique genius is fear. Writing -- at least deep, personal writing -- results from a direct confrontation with that fear. Some writers abandon their genius for fear of the pain of introspection. Others develop the courage to face themselves and move forward. Genius can flourish within an incubator of safety, self-confidence, focus, and practice. A nurturing environment allows some the freedom to take greater risks and plumb greater depths of personal understanding than those trapped within the cycle of their own fears.

By perfectly articulating the unspoken dread that many writers face when they seat themselves before the empty page, Schneider puts a face on the unseen enemy -- the writer him- or herself -- and allows one to move forward and deal with issues that otherwise may remain unidentified. Schneider demonstrates how to confront these scenarios not only to the solitary writer, but within the group workshop experience as well. As someone who has participated in workshops AND faced the terror of "alone," I can attest that her book can touch in a single sitting what sometimes years of therapy fails to unmask.

As theraputic as the book may be for one's writing, it may or may not be a therapy for the writer. As Schneider says in her book, "Whether or not writing heals the writer is irrelevant. What matters is the power of the work itself." This book is about writing and resolution, not about self-healing, though often the two go hand-in-hand.

This book should become a staple for all high school or university creative writing classes or for any writing class -- fiction or no -- that aims to put the writer in touch with his inner voice. In the beginning each of us brings so much unnecessary baggage to the pen or to the keyboard. And there is so much to regret for the needless time we lose in learning to know ourselves. Let's get on with it.

Pat Schneider goes way beyond her first writing book in this one, "Writing Alone And With Others." It is filled with effective solutions to dilemmas that face all writers; poems and pieces from writing workshop participants to illustrate her point; hundreds of prompts to spur on a writing group;( I love these and have used many of them already with super results) Her delight as we discover our voice is surely contagious. I highly recommend Schneider's book and find it full of a lot of new info. Enjoy!

Pat Schneider's wonderful book, WRITING ALONE AND WITH OTHERS, is a life-time gift to all writers and leaders of writing groups seeking fresh encouragement and practical advice for their writing life. I find the exercises, which are well-indexed and easy to use, invaluable in my workshops; and the sections on craft are clear, concise and instructive.

What is most outstanding about Schneider's book, is her passionate and convincing belief that anyone who has language, and who wants to, can write. Her excitement about the process and her concrete approach to writing alone and leading writing groups lend both courage and means to all those whose stories and poems wait to be written.

I bought this book last month and have been working through the exercises on my own and with my writer's circle. I try to write for a few hours every evening, and until I found Schneider's book those hours could often feel like a penance. Now, I look forward to my time alone with my computer, and I can't believe how much more limber, open and creative I feel.

Schneider's exercises for and advice about working with a group have re-inspired my friends and me. We've been writing together now for a couple of years, but with the help of Schneider's book we've already brought ourselves to new levels in our own writing and in our abilities to encourage each other. Schneider knows exactly what it's like to be a writer -- the joys and the hard parts. This is THE book.

I teach school, seventh grade, and use writing "across the curriculum" the new lingo for writing in all disciplines. I've used this author's earlier work, which is good, but this is just a great update. So much richer than almost any other writing guide, and very, well, companionable is the only way I can put it. A hearty recommendation to all teachers for this book.

This book is a great read, full of stories and writing samples. Pat Schneider comes across as warm, caring, and very smart. Her standards are high, her advice is solid. Anyone interested in writing for any reason will love this book.