Writing Open the Mind: Tapping the Subconscious to Free the Writing and the Writer

by Andy Couturier (Author)

14 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-1569754764

ISBN-10: 1569754764

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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.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"...wholly inspiring, effervescent, and wonderful." ― Catherine Newman, author of Waiting for Birdy

"By far the most interesting and provocative book on the creative process I've read in many years." ― Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn

About the Author

Andy Couturier, MA, is an essayist, a poet and a professionally trained writing teacher. He has written for newspapers, magazines and literary journals including Adbusters, Creative Non-Fiction, The Japan Times, The North American Review, Fiber Arts, InvAsian Journal, and others. A recent essay was just nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and a new work has just appeared in an anthology of ecological writings put out by MIT Press, Writing the Future. He has taught writing at Cal. State University, Hayward, and is currently on the faculty of JFK University. He is currently researching how intuitive collage in writing can lead to new states of consciousness. Follow these links to read an essay by the instructor which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize Selling Indulgence in Corporate Japan, and an essay on writing Using Intuitive Collage to Tell The Story of Your Life.

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Product details

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Ulysses Press (September 1, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1569754764
ISBN-13: 978-1569754764
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 14 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #601,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #795 in Books > Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Publishing & Books > Authorship
- #1252 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Literature > Creative Writing & Composition
- #2707 in Books > Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Writing > Fiction

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Oxana Alexandra

Excellent "tutorial," full of permissions, not restrictions!!!

August 26, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book has truly opened my mind. I have been able to explore the dimensions I never knew existed in my mind and beyond. While reading the book I've realized that I had been conditioned to write formal essays in the past, back in business school... and I couldn't stand it. My soul was screaming in pain every time I had to write a paper... The only time I could semi-enjoy writing was for the art history classes, where I had to apply some creative writing techniques, but they were few and far between. I had learned the "value" of economy of words, but I had to break myself down and rebuild my writing style in order to fit into the mold of what business school considered a "proper writing." It was a high price to pay for that kind of "properness." In the process I had lost my personality and originality that came with it. The way Andy put it in his book, "we get all jammed up like ohms of resistance in a copper wire." You can say it again, Andy. I was all jammed up!
I broke out of the straight jacket of "proper writing" and became myself once again after I read the book. But it was even better than what I remembered I used to be before, years ago... If I thought I had freedom of expression and creative abundance prior to business school, I was grossly mistaken. The book offered a wealth of exercises, which bent my brain this way and that way, startled and shocked me, and made my thinking so much more flexible, sublime. I discovered bold permissions, not restrictions, that let my mind soar. I got acquainted with the subconscious, the "shy forest creature," who is responsible for all that creativity we don't even now we carry in the back of our minds, and I made friends with mess. It is in the messiness of things that I've leaned to go into a trance where I could unearth the jewels of brilliance... I am so happy to have found this book!

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Monty J. Heying

Sheer Genius

January 23, 2006

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

There are two kinds of writers--those who are oblivious or ambivalent about the role of the subconscious, and those who have tuned-in. As one of the latter, I believe that Andy Couturier's "Writing Open the Mind" can be a vital, enriching tool for anyone serious or curious about how writers mine their minds.

This is not just another "how to write" book. "Writing Open the Mind" is a watershed work on the writing process, thoroughly researched and proven in the laboratory of Couturier's workshops, about how to gain access to our deepest and truest feelings and memories which are often inaccessible, buried under the mountainous tailings of our personal histories and cemented over with psychological defenses.

I've been to Andy's workshops and experienced repeatedly the way these exercises can trick the mind into revealing its precious ore. Time and again I was amazed, sometimes shocked, at what ended up on the paper before me after one of Andy's free-write exercises. Sometimes it was stuff I knew was there but could never seem to bring myself to write about. Or names and scenes and rich sensory detail I'd forgotten.

And the look on Andy's shining face, the beaming smile, the gleam in his eyes, spoke volumes about his passion for helping writers do exactly what I had just done. I saw that look repeatedly as my classmates accomplished similar feats of creative access.

Deep within the subconscious is where a writer's best material resides, and this is where good writers toil diligently, working, as Steinbeck said, "at the impossible".

I have two library shelves of books on writing, and Andy Couturier's WOM has taken it's well-deserved place alongside Nat Goldberg's "Writing Down the Bones". (Maybe Andy will do a companion audio tape or video followup?)

12 people found this helpful

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Flamenco Romántico

This book is a must for anybody who is interested in writing.

August 25, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book is a must for anybody who is interested in writing. It is filled with excellent writing exercises which really do open up the mind.

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Cheryl Sindell

One of a Kind

July 16, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Writing Open the Mind has messages other books on writing don't touch.

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Cheryl57

Unlike any other book of writing prompts. This is ...

August 10, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Unlike any other book of writing prompts. This is the one you want to buy because it's not just a list. Each section taps the subconscious and opens it up to feelings, memories, invokes colour and compels you to write down your thoughts. Be prepared to write when you start reading. This is not a book to be read lightly. This is a book that invites the Muse into your subconscious.

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Amazon Customer

Filled with energy, but a bit too zealous for instruction...

May 19, 2007

Format: Paperback

I got this book because I wanted to crack my mind open and be more experimental with my writing.

But honestly, reading "Writing Open The Mind" got tiring after a couple of chapters. Not because it's not authoritative--it's very obvious that the author was having a joy writing it, and I believe that it's that kind of freedom that he wants to encourage and celebrate.

But to me, his writing style would have been better off as great examples of exploratory writing, rather than the main instructional text itself. It's like listening to a training speaker filled with so much zeal and verve that it takes him a while to get to the meat of things. While I'm amazed at the energy possessed by Couturier's writing, I'm the kind of person who needs straightforward instruction first.

So it's a "three" for me. Couturier could simplify things a bit for the most part, especially when he explains the fundamentals, then wow us with brilliant examples of acrobatic writing as inspiration. It would then have been perfect for me.

I'll be checking out a similar book and make comparisons.

11 people found this helpful

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