Just one of those books...

I'm reading a book that is talking out loud to me. The only other one I've read that has reached out and grabbed me as much on this level would have to be Bird by Bird (Anne Lamott). This one is The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear (Ralph Keyes, 1995).

I received it as a Christmas gift from my in-laws along with five or six others on writing, and will have to give them kudos for picking extremely well! The others are reference books or character or plot development books. This one is more like a kick in the butt. ;)

I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to write, but isn't quite sure where to start, or anyone who already writes, but doubts they have the ability or material some days...and who doesn't?

A few things in particular jump out at me. So far. I'm only half finished.

1) I can relate to much of what he reveals about the authors he references. Cool! Maybe I am a writer! For instance, he writes of E.B. White (Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little):

"A writer's courage can easily fail him," he observed while accepting the National Medal for Literature, "I feel this daily."

Shazaam.

2) The good stuff might be embarrassing. Or scary.

Writers are always hungry for compelling topics to explore. The problem is that the best ones are mortifying. A warm flush of embarrassment is like a dowsing rod pointing its quivering tip right at deep wells of rich material. When our cheeks feel hot with chagrin, we've probably hit a gusher.

And...

The closer they get to painful personal truths, the more fear mounts—not just about what they might reveal but about what they might discover should they venture too deeply inside.

No, Momma, don't make me!!!

3) Page fright. Heh.

4) Literary fog.

Readers who dare to point out that incomprehensible writing can't be comprehended risk being told that the problem is theirs.

Shhh...don't tell anyone, but I love what he says about literary and academic writing. Poor Gertrude Stein.

5) Lonely kids, lonely writers

Successful writers rarely emerge from the ranks of the popular. Those who went to the prom seldom take up the pen. Why should they? Their thirst for attention has been slaked. They don't have as many scores to settle.

Okay, who told? I've been trying to keep that whole prom thing a secret. I had a blind date with my best friend's older brother's buddy, but I chickened out. Sigh.

I better stop, but in case you didn't notice, this book is the it book. Buy it. Read it.