Writing from Life (Inner Workbook.) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "I was born in a busy Chicago hospital, just at noon on the second day of the brand-new year 1940, with the world peering anxiously..." (more)
Key Phrases: story circle, timed writing, travel log, Common Causes, Sylvia Plath, Terrible Mother (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Writing from Life is from the Tarcher/Putnam series of Inner Work Books, which also spawned The Artist's Way. Written specifically for women, Writing from Life offers a framework (and a generous amount of encouragement and kindling) for writing, chapter by chapter, about the various aspects of your life. Start with your own birth, Susan Wittig Albert recommends: ask anyone who might remember it to recount it for you; go to the library and find out what kind of world you were born into. By book's end you will have delved into your shiniest glories, your darkest days, your deepest secrets, and your most mundane moments. You will have written about (and thus discovered how you feel about) your family and soul mates, journeys you have taken, places you have called home, and causes that motivate you. Inspiring quotes, mostly by women, are strewn throughout, and each chapter concludes with a meditation and suggestions for celebrating its completion.

From Publishers Weekly

Believing that all women have stories to tell and that they can grow spiritually as they learn to put those stories into words, Susan Witting Albert provides a guided writing program that is practical and inspiring. Her step-by-step instructions and exercises derive from her 30 years experience as a teacher of writing. She encourages women to discover their own voices through exploration of eight thematic clusters: beginnings and birthings; achievements, gifts and glories; female bodies; loves, lovers, lovings; journeys and journeying; homes and homings; visits to the Valley of Shadows; and, experiences of community. In an appendix, Albert shows writers how to create what she calls a "Story Circle," a community of women who can gain, through sharing their writing, a sense of belonging and an appreciation of "transformative magic of writing." Albert's book brings charm and elegance to the view of writing as a process of self-discovery.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher (January 13, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874778484
• ISBN-13: 978-0874778489
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #47,683 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is a splendid book ..., August 14, 1999

By A Customer

for women interested in mapping out the journey of their lives.Includes meditations, excerpts from other women's writings, and pragmatic exercises that wil help you put into words the losses and the celebrations of your life.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Deserves A Shelf of Its Own, April 9, 2008

By	Story Circle Book Reviews (www.storycirclebookreviews.org) - See all my reviews

I'm sitting here at the computer with two books spread in front of me. They have the same title, but look nothing alike. I don't mean that they merely have different cover art (both feature roses). One is dog-eared, underlined and annotated, and it flaunts four different colors of sticky notes. I bought it new. However, it is a used book--a well-used book. The other is newer with only a little underlining. I wanted to keep it pristine, but I can't discipline my hand; she keeps grabbing a pen and marking the good parts.

When Writing from Life came out in 1996, Susan Wittig Albert was a pioneer. She recognized the need for women to tell--and to share--their stories. All women--not only movie stars, Arctic explorers or famous women. For women who agreed with Susan but didn't know where to begin, this book served (and still serves) as a starting point.

Over a decade later, other books on memoir writing and related activities burden my bookshop shelves. But Writing from Life, for me, deserves a shelf of its own. I am delighted and grateful that the book came out again, this time with a new foreword and a revised, updated bibliography. Fortunately, the text of the book itself is unchanged.

Susan also founded Story Circle Network (SCN). Like many of its members, I cannot remember if this book led me into the organization or if SCN brought me to the book. It doesn't matter. Both have strengthened and enriched my writing life, no--my entire life.

Susan's new foreword recalls origins of the book and of SCN. She reiterates the reasons that women's life writing is critical, almost essential. Why should women tell and share their stories? It gives perspective and understanding to one's own life. It is healing, even to physical ills. It strengthens families and communities, and it leaves a legacy. Any one of these is reason enough to begin writing.

That's what the reader of Writing from Life will immediately want to do--grab a pencil, warm up the computer. The book lives up to the promise on the cover of both editions; it sets the reader off on "A journey of self-discovery." Early on, it encourages the writer/reader not only to tell her story, but also to create a book of her story. Seems daunting? Susan suggests writing out the words, "I am writing my life. I am telling my true story," and then taping them over a mirror or desk. She encourages,

"Nobody every writes a book all at once. As I write this, I'm writing a sentence, a word at a time. I collect sentences--three or four or seven or eight of them--into paragraphs, and two or three of those are enough to fill a page. A dozen or two dozen pages make a chapter. A covey of chapters is a book.
"But right now, I'm not worried about writing a book. Right now, I simply have faith in this true word, and this one, and the next. I have faith in this honest sentence, this paragraph, this page. That's all I need. Faith. Word by word, sentence by sentence. If I care enough about telling the truth, my truth, my book will speak for itself."

The journey the book promises begins in the beginning, but the road doesn't run in straight autobiography style through sixth grade, first date, marriage. Instead, Susan compares a life to a musical composition with themes and resonating chords that appear and reappear. So we explore our beginnings but also other birthings and beginnings, move on to gifts and graces, and then through relationships, homes, journeys and more. A new and fascinating way of regarding life.

I particularly enjoy the section on "Body Language," where we pause to have conversations with our body parts. Does your uterus have a name? Mine is Polly. (Don't ask me why!) And I'm going to have a serious conversation with my right hand about this constant underlining! Sounds light-hearted. It is. But even "fun" exercises lead to deep thought.

This kind of organization is appealing. Not only does it force our minds into new corners, but it allows for some dipping. If I don't feel like doing "Soul Mates" this week, I can flip forward to "Journeys." Since I've been dipping in and out of this book for quite a few years, I've also learned that time may or may not bring wisdom, but it certainly brings fresh perspectives. I can compare my responses to one chapter written several years ago to one I did last week and see how I have changed and, I hope, grown.

This is also a book about sharing. Susan shares her life story as she explains the process, but she also spikes the narrative with passages from her writing students as well as from published memoirs (plus there is a great reading list in the back). It's almost like belonging to a Story Circle. In fact, the book is designed to be used by Story Circle groups (the book and the organization are almost twins!), although it works well when used independently.

Looking back at the stories I have written, the stories I've shared with other writers (I am a member of an OWL Circle--another group sponsored by SCN. in Georgia and two on-line SCN groups), I reflect on the words in Susan's new foreword... "at the simplest level, many of us find that the truth is often more compelling than fiction, if only because it is...well, true." Amen. Particularly when those truths are our own truths.

by Patricia Nordyke Pando
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A USEFUL, INSPIRATIONAL READ, March 16, 2007

By	Pamela D. Blair "Author, Psychotherapist & Li... (Hawthorne, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

We have been using this book in my writer's group and we've learned so much --- some of us are published writers, others are not. It doesn't seem to matter where you are in your writing journey, professional or not, this book is well-done and an inspiration. Pamela D. Blair, Ph.D., Author, The Next Fifty Years: A Guide for Women at Midlife and Beyond