Customer Reviews

Writing Past Dark: Envy, Fear, Distraction and Other Dilemmas in the Writer's Life

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Writing Past Dark is so much more than a self-help book or a how-to-do-it guide. This is a book that dares to broach -- beautifully, boldly -- subjects that all writers grapple with and none talk about. Writer's envy! Writer's block! And to broach them in language that is lush and sharp. Friedman writes with soaring, exquisite precision. Her vision is original and her heart is large. Just listen to this: "A writer's concentation is ... mercy toward oneself. It is allowing imperfection. It is allowing mess. ... The mutter, the cracked voice, the false start, the false start again, all precede the song." I first read this book five years ago and when I picked it up again a month ago, it had the startling freshness of a dream.

What an act of generosity it was for Bonnie Friedman to write this book! There was no earthly reason for her to share her thoughts on envy and writer's block, other than her own desire to pool her insight with other human beings who suffer the same perils and joys. A cause for celebration!

That's the advice that Friedman gives in her introduction:
"Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing...believing in the value of their work, despite the difficulties." Friedman presents many of those difficulties in her own life in a very honest and revealing way, starting with "Envy, the Writer's Disease." The only cure for envy? "Returning to my work," the author says. Friedman covers many other problems in writing, among them: Distraction, writing about those still living, writing schools, getting the meaning into your stories, writer's block, and what happens when you finally are published. (You mean life doesn't instantly become a bed of roses? Uh...no...)

'Writing Past Dark' is an honest, moving, and sometimes funny look at the life of a writer. Writers at every level will be able to identify with many if not all of the essays here, which make for excellent reading. If you are a beginning writer, this is a great book for giving you a glimpse of what may be in store for you. For seasoned veterans, the book will be a work you can identify and sympathize with.

Did the word distraction get you? Me too. This book really helped me to focus on why I write and why I sometimes sabotage my writing efforts. From writer's block to finding the time to write, the author will be your companion as she gently brings you back to the page.

What a thrill to find a wise, consoling voice in the solitude that is the writer's life! This book helped me recognize my fears and desires that had been keeping me from my work, and helped me rededicate to the real voice instead of the chatter of all the false.

i don't usually use the word "gorgeous" but it certainly applies to this work. there is such a generous spirit behind this book. it's a love offering to all writers and anyone connected to writers ...

I was at the end of my belief in myself as a writer; almost threw in the pencil. And then I read "Writing Past Dark", which gave me permission to admit that yes, it's hard, that yes, occasionally I was silenced and pinced by envy -- and best of all, the book helped me find my way back to my voice. I published a bestseller last year, thanks to B. Friedman's beneficent words.

I was attracted to this book because of its unique title, "Writing Past Dark" and then dove into it because it seemed to approach the average writer's challenges from a unique perspective... not lamenting block, discouragement, envy... instead just laying it out there so that you will not feel so alone.

This book is like a vaccination against quitting.....

There were several segments of the book which worked especially well. In the section on "Anorexia of language, why we can't write" which personifies silence in this way. "I have been staring into silence's blank face all month and I want to rattle it, to shake it, to force it to confess what's at its obsessive, fanatical core."

There is also a lot of ripeness in the chapter on Envy: the Writer's vocational hazard. I wanted to applaude as I read, "The antidote to envy is one's own work. Always doing ones own work. Not thinking about it, not the assessing of it. But the doing of it. The answers you want can only come from the work itself. It drives the spooks away.

Excellent lessons beautifully and satisfyingly crafted.

When I bought this book, I was hoping for something that would inspire me and help me take action against the writers' block I had been experiencing. I wanted something practical, something with solutions.
As I read the book, though, it quickly became apparent that it was none of those things. Rather provide than a practical guide on various ways to FIX the dilemmas she describes, the author merely treads water on the subject. She simply talks about the different writing-related problems she's had in the past. The book is full of her memories and interpretations. But that's where each chapter stops. There's no additional step, no suggestions on how to overcome each problem. I quickly got tired of the book's semi-autobiographical nature, irritated at the author's frequent references to herself and her own writing career. I wanted a guide, I wanted inspirational ideas and instruction, I wanted something I could USE. Instead, the book seemed to be an abstract discussion about psychology and feelings. The author seems to be saying "I'd rather analyze problems than solve them."
If I'd bought this book solely with an interest in psychology, I might have actually liked it. There are times when I can get really fascinated by analytical psycho-jumble. If that's what I'd been craving when I began reading this, it might have been ideal.
But for someone who wants help in actually overcoming writers' block, rather than just idly talking about it, I feel this book falls sadly short.

This book unlike many others isn't a real workbook, if you want that I would recommend Keith Hjortshoj's Writing Blocks, but it is very helpful, and I actually got this one from Keith's recommendation.

One of the great things I learnt here, is that "Writing isn't about control" controlling how the audience responds to you, this mythic audience anyways, writing isn't about perfection, "writing is about release". Letting it go. I found that helpful for like Bonnie I would worry about this or that and never start -- I have to make sure everything was ok. Everything was neat. The dishes washed, the dogs walked, the clothes hung and dried and folded. I had a billion things to control in my writing environment as well, I don't have the best word processor, my keyboard stinks or like her who was obsessing too much about a fly in her room, something around me is out of whack and "I must get to it!"

Bonnie made me realise that all of this was a a control issue, I thought it was taking care of business, and that in my ego-mania I wanted to control everything, myself, my writing and my reader. Finally I realised there wasn't much I could control, I would be lucky if I could control my fingers hitting the right keypads, I'm such a poor typist, and there in lies the rub. Art is messy, and I have to get used to it. Bonnie shows and points out how she did. I found that immensely helpful.