Book Review: A Writer's Time

A Writer's Time: Making the Time to Write by Kenneth Atchity


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Kenneth Atchity has released a good reference book for would-be writers. I can best sum up the goal of this book with the following sentence: "For people who want to write, but have too many excuses as to why they can't."

Not being one of those people, I didn't take a lot from the motivational side of things, however, the author has good suggestions for time management that will help people prioritize and get started on that novel that they've been dreaming about writing. In the end, Atchity just wants to help you succeed and that's always a good bottom line for any self-help book.

The book is a bit dated in some of it's information, for instance, the computer (word processor) is a new tool to the author, and he recommends filing systems for papers and manuscripts where nowadays we tend to keep and file things electronically.

He outlines a beginner's process to writing fiction and non-fiction novels and good ways to collect and prepare information. There is also a helpful section for those particularly interested in screenplays.

My favorite sections were the first - in which he explains the thought process behind writing and how different parts of your brain work together to come up with ideas and how the best ideas are chosen and applied to the current work. I'd always realized these processes existed, but he was able to provide terms for these processes that make describing and understanding them much easier. I also took a lot from the section regarding publishing and how to submit manuscripts and what editors may be looking for, though I'm not sure how much of this information is still relevant seeing as how we are in an age of new information.

I would definitely recommend this book to new writers who can easily get frustrated when dealing with writer's block as Atchity's tips will help them understand the human mind and overcome the mental blocks they put in place for themselves.

Though not all sections included pertained to my methods or genres of writing, there's a lot of good insight and information from someone who has spent years and years in the writing industry and we should never stop learning and always be willing to take the advice of others. Especially those who are more experienced and successful than ourselves.

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