Books That Help Writers

I’m in the process of preparing a workshop titled, The Art of Balancing Writing and a Full Time Job, for the Northern Colorado Writers Conference in April. In the workshop I’ll discuss a technique I adapted from Julia Cameron’s Morning Page concept described in her book The Artist’s Way. Recently when I taught another workshop, a book was recommended to me, Writing Down the Bones, Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg. I’ve just completed reading it, and it has some excellent suggestions for all of us writers. Natalie recommends a technique called a Timed Exercise to write continuous for a specific amount of time such as ten, twenty or sixty minutes. She gives six rules:Keep your hand movingDon’t cross outDon’t worry about spelling, punctuation, grammarLose controlDon’t think. Don’t get logicalGo for the jugularMuch like Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages, this is a way to get in touch with our creativity by diving in and writing non-stop. Try it. You’ll find the results fascinating.