Writing the Natural Way [Paperback]

Gabriele Lusser Rico (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 3, 2000

Writing the Natural Way, first published fifteen years ago, has shown hundreds of thousands of readers how to turn the task of writing into the joy of writing. Completely revised, newly illustrated, and with a wealth of updated, field-tested exercises, this popular classic will help unlock natural writing styles and storytelling abilities.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

For twenty years, Gabriele Rico, Ph.D., has led workshops and lectured extensively on the creative process and the application of brain research to learning. A professor of English and creative arts at San Jose State University, she lives in Chicago.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher; Rev Sub edition (April 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874779618
• ISBN-13: 978-0874779615
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.7 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #189,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gabriele Rico (Ph.D., Stanford University, 1976) authored the best-selling Writing the Natural Way (Tarcher/Penguin, 1983, 2002) and Creating Re-Creations: Inspiration from the Source (2002). She is co-author of several textbooks, including Discovering Literature (Prentice Hall). Forthcoming is Write to Fly Again, focusing on directing human emotions constructively through writing.
Bridging the humanities and the sciences, Rico speaks widely on the application of brain research to writing, to learning, and to creative process--most recently on the roles of improvisation, play, and time-awareness in creative engagement. She developed Clustering, a tool to tap into the brain's self-organizing process, which has found its way into textbooks on writing and journaling, and into computer software used in schools everywhere.
Honored as San Jose State University's President's Scholar in 1986, she was selected Teacher/ Scholar in 1993. In 1992 she held an Endowed Chair at Notre Dame (Belmont).
She is at work on a book exploring the relationship between paintings and poems, Pictures Speak, Poems See. Her creative nonfiction work, entitled MIND SHADOWS: A Child Recalls War, has been an emotional challenge. Her translations of contemporary poems from German-to-English and English-to-German, entitled The Root Hunger for Angels, bring her full circle back to her mother tongue. Other projects include a book on the brain, time, and creativity.
Her newest adventure has been the founding a publishing house, Natural Way Publishing, whose aim is to publish books that deserve to see the light of day. Her first was Tobias Grether's HOMOCHRONOS: The Emergence of Time-Consciousness (2011). Next is Janet Post, Cotton Rock (October, 2011), then two children's books by author Robin Nelson, The Quietest Bird and Not Enough Puffins (2012). Stay tuned for six more in 2012. Her website is www.writingthenaturalway.com where you can reach her.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational and practical March 21, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Mass Market Paperback

This book inspired me to write, and it offered great practical advice with the technique of clustering and writing with my Design mind. Rico helped me to realize that anything I wanted to write was already inside, waiting to be tapped. Using Rico's techniques, I am able to write in ways that continue to astound me. I have used her techniques to write papers as a student in classes, as well as to write on my own. I am now a published writer of fiction and non-fiction, and I continue to use her ideas and inspiration.

48 of 52 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A left brain approach to right brain activity July 15, 2002

By R. Tiedemann

Format:Paperback

Here's the scientific way to becoming a writer -- that is, by using right brain techniques to release your expressive powers: clustering, recurrence, revision (meaning re-seeing), image and metaphor, creative tension, trial web and language rhythm.

Rico begins by teaching the reader how to release the "inner writer." Her method is one of brainstorming, but she calls it clustering. It's free association designed to call the subconcious into creative action. It works. It's the modern and scientific adaptation of a technique Dorothea Brande wrote about in the 1930s in BECOMING A WRITER.

Most writers like to watch their words appear on paper -- or on the computer screen. Then we read them to see what we think. I call it writing from the heart; Rico calls it right brain activity. Whatever you call it, it works, it's useful and learning to use it can change your writing -- for the better -- forever.

No serious writer should be without this book, no matter what he/she writes. Don't just read it, do the exercises. They're fun, they'll surprise and enlighten you and whether you're a novice or a pro, they'll make you a better writer.

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars 'Writing the Natural Way' lives up to its name November 26, 2003

By Michael Meanwell

Format:Paperback

Consider this: all writing begins with an idea. The art of writing is the act of expressing that idea as succinctly and wholly as possible. And that's the hardest thing for many writers ~ getting on screen the right words, in the right order.

Whether it's a lack of inspiration, an overload of information or just muddled thinking, writer's block is a very real affliction that affects most writers at some stage.

The good news is that 'Writing the Natural Way' offers a solution for those faced with this problem.

Put simply, psychologist and author Dr Gabriele Rico has developed the concept of 'clustering', which essentially circumvents the left hemisphere of the brain (what she refers to as the 'Sign Mind'), so that you can release raw creativity from the right hemisphere (or 'Design Mind'), which is responsible for artist pursuits.

Her book contains a variety of simple exercises and strategies that stimulate the left and right hemispheres to work individually or simultaneously to solve problems. They are also designed to enhance a writer's potential, by accessing latent language, story-telling abilities and natural styles.

Rico's work is ground breaking but it is not new. In fact, this book was originally published more than 15 years ago. This new edition has been completely updated with inspirational quotations, 'before and after' writing samples from her students as well as a range of techniques and activities to help the reader make the transition to this new way of thinking and writing.

Admittedly, I had not heard of Rico's 'clustering' technique before reading her book. However I had used for a number of years a similar technique, called 'mind mapping'. The two techniques essentially work in the same manner. What I like about Rico's approach are the many examples and exercises she includes.

Her tools allow anyone to think laterally and to write with greater power, focus and effect. It's all about excavating ideas from seemingly dormant recesses of the mind and shaping this raw material into powerful forms of communication . . . something the author does well.

This is an excellent guide and painless workshop manual for any new or experienced writer who wants to discover a new dimension in their work.

Rico offers a simple but powerful tool that any writer can understand and apply to their work. Once you've used it a few times, you'll find it indispensable for brainstorming and writing literally any kind of work.

-- Michael Meanwell, author of the critically-acclaimed 'The Enterprising Writer' and 'Writers on Writing'. For more book reviews and prescriptive articles for writers, visit www.enterprisingwriter.com