Writing Open the Mind: Tapping the Subconscious to Free the Writing and the Writer [Paperback]

Andy Couturier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2005 | ISBN-10: 1569754764 | ISBN-13: 978-1569754764

With Writing Open the Mind you can inject a sense of playfulness and possibility into your writing!

Powerful writing comes naturally when your mind is energized and experimental, when it can take risks and follow the unexpected. Use the techniques in this book to jump-start your creativity, learn new tricks and expand your writing repertoire.

• Use the surrealist technique of "automatic writing;"
• Play with archetypal imagery from the Tarot;
• Learn from the resonances of the body;
• Write in diverse voices and styles;
• Connect with the luminous natural world;
• Scramble word sequences to break the habit of making "sense" in a
linear way.

This rollicking guide opens dozens of gateways to the subconscious world. Whether you are writing for publication or for personal pleasure, the practical tools and liberating philosophy found in this book will release the genius of the intuitive mind.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Ulysses Press (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569754764
• ISBN-13: 978-1569754764
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,061,712 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

ANDY COUTURIER is the son of a biographer and a civil rights activist. During his four years of living in Japan, he wrote for the Japan Times; worked with local environmentalists fighting large dam projects, rainforest destruction, and huge electric power plants; taught English; and studied the interconnections between Japanese aesthetics and innovative new forms of writing. In California, he and his partner built their own house using only hand tools, developing a piece of raw land into a functioning rural homestead with solar and hydro-electric power, running hot and cold water, and a Japanese-style bath.

Andy has studied Buddhist meditation and many other Asian philosophical systems, and has traveled extensively in Africa, Southeast Asia, and India. He has been a researcher for Greenpeace and has taught writing for more than a decade. He is the author of Writing Open the Mind: Tapping the Subconscious to Free the Writing and the Writer and has written for Adbusters, the MIT Press, Kyoto Journal, Creative Nonfiction, The North American Review, The Oakland Tribune, and Ikebana International. He directs his own creative writing center, The Opening, at www.theopening.org.

Andy welcomes your thoughts and comments on this book, either by mail to P.O. Box 881, Santa Cruz, CA 95061 or by email to [e-mail].

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tickle open your mind, October 10, 2005

By 

Dr. Lisa Herman (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Writing Open the Mind: Tapping the Subconscious to Free the Writing and the Writer (Paperback)

Andy Couturier's book made me giggle, scratch my head and go straight to the computer and get to work. I did some of the exercises and I will do more. Mainly, it's Andy's love of words and his ability to construct sentences that make perfect sense while at the same time sing, in a zany kind of way, that I found inspiring. After playing in these pages, you just gotta write something.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and wise and utterly inspiring, October 27, 2005

By 

Kimberley Sevcik (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Writing Open the Mind: Tapping the Subconscious to Free the Writing and the Writer (Paperback)

Writing Open the Mind feels more like an invitation to a party of the imagination than a teaching guide. Andy Couturier reminds us that writing isn't an exclusive club for a few anointed geniuses--no pedantry or hushed reverence about the written word here. His goal is to inspire would-be writers to release the inhibitions that breed creaky, predictable prose and to find pleasure and freedom in writing, and he has a gift for doing it. Through playful, inventive exercises and the example of his own boundary-leaping prose, he leads aspiring writers to the places inside where they will find resonant narratives and authentic, original ways of saying what they want to say. His encouragement and his excitement about the written word is infectious, and it does exactly what it's mean to do; it makes you want to dash to the keyboard (or pick up a pen) and write.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A 241 page idea book full of creative approaches to the process of writing, September 3, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Writing Open the Mind: Tapping the Subconscious to Free the Writing and the Writer (Paperback)

Writing Open The Mind: Writing Open The Mind: Tapping The Subconscious To Free The Writing And The Writer is a 241 page idea book full of creative approaches to the process of writing. For both the serious professional writer and the creative personal journalist, Writing Open The Mind could be just what the writing workshop doctor ordered. Quirky, humorous, irreverent, yet filled with practical tips and exercises to jog loose the cobwebs and stopping places of the mind, Writing Open The Mind delivers more valuable writing gold for the miner than many a heftier, loftier tome. Perhaps what works best in Writing Open The Mind is in fact its underlying sense of playfulness. For example, who would you respond to the idea of triggering new 'mindstates' with use of hypnotic scents, lights, and sounds? If this intrigues the writer in you, read chapter four, 'Sway'. How about the notion of resequencing the mind, shuffling the nuggets, splicing things differently? Read chapter three, 'Shatter/Scramble. 'Other mind unblocking approaches include dropping into the deep subconscious, pushing against the boundaries of your work, architectures, prismatics, writing from the kindetic body (or 'Shaking Up the Curmudgeon'), and re-visions, a way to work on writing using the improvisational mind. Author Couturier also suggest working with a writing group, and inventing your own experiments. Couturier deftly quotes a gaggle of creative writing bylines in such a way as to highlight the energy unblocking magic implicit in each one. In the last chapter subsection titled 'The Secret Order of Hermeneutics and the Text of the World' he openly advocates his major agenda: "We write to understand. Thus we should write. But we can never fully understand...Thus we should keep writing (p.234)." He goes on to explain the hermeneutic circle, which is what writers do when they write, attempt to understand and interpret the world. He writes: "When we ask questions in our writing in a way that replicates the complexity of the world, the questions are better questions. That's why the writing experiments here try to replicate the complexity of this very world (p. 235)." Writing Open The Mind is a most enjoyable magician's toolbox of techniques to help the writer improve his/her writing. It deserves to be read at least twice, once for entertainment and once for understanding.