Stone, Kelly L.: Time to Write
Time to Write: Professional Writers Reveal How to Fit Writing into Your Busy Life
Writer: Kelly L. Stone
Genre: Writing Literature
Pages: 245
It's time to kick off my writer's block/procrastination book reviews. First up, Kelly L. Stone's Time to Write. This book is relatively new, and it came to my attention via the SHU Writing Popular Fiction Board (aka, a forum for us zany grad students). Between the pretty cover and its boast of having "more than 100 professional writers reveal how to fit writing into your busy life" (lifted straight off the cover, if you must know), I thought this would be a promising start to my reading binge.
Time to Write is aimed at writers of ALL kinds. Fiction, non-fiction, magazine writers, and even those who don't have aspirations of getting published. And I'll admit, and the start of the book when Stone is discussing a person's "Burning Desire to Write," I kept rolling my eyes and steeling myself for what surely would be a rather overly optimistic and cheerful book aimed to annoy cynical writers like me.
But thankfully, that was not the case. Oh, don't worry, the phrases "Burning Desire to Write" and "Vision of Success" still make my inner cynic smirk, but there's a helluva lot of great advice in this book, and the best thing about it is that every bit of it is made with the acknowledgment that every writer is different and therefore has different needs and drives (save for the initial "Burning Desire to Write").
How does this work? Well, partially because Stone interviewed over a 100 different writers for this book, writers of all genres--fiction and non-fiction--which therefore provides us with a variety of viewpoints and work habits. But Stone goes a step farther: we don't just get one writer saying, "Mornings are the best time to write" and another saying "Evenings are the best time to write," we get reasons WHY these writers say the things they do and then SUGGESTIONS on how to create such a schedule in your OWN life.
For example: I'm constantly hearing about writer's whose best time to write is at the crack of dawn. I envy them the ability to haul their asses out of bed at 4:00 am to write before work, and as much as I'd like to do that, I love my sleep too much and could never make myself do such a thing, even for my "Burning Desire to Write."
Or could I? Stone suggests that rather than trying such a habit cold-turkey (like she did and like I would if I tried and like many of YOU would as well), but letting your mind and body adjust to such a schedule in baby-steps by setting your alarm five minutes earlier each day until you reach the desired time allotment to write in.
The morning example is the easiest one to discuss, but Stone provides all KINDS of different writing schedules, and not all of them involve writing every day. I know, scary, right? Such a thing flies in the face of everything you've been taught about writing and discipline, doesn't it?
But while providing a variety of methods to get your butt in the chair and beat procrastination, Stone also constantly stresses one point: treat your writing like it's a REAL job that you get paid for, even if you aren't raking in any cash. The reasoning is that if you're treating it seriously, you'll start giving your craft the credit it's due, and guess what, others will start taking you seriously too and respecting your work and time a little more.
Overall, this is an easy book to recommend. It doesn't patronize, though if you're a more "educated" writer like I am (meaning you've been to numerous workshops and classes and have heard it all before), you might find some things repetitive or silly, but by the end, even the most cynical writer should get some kind of good out of this book. I know I did. In fact, I'm very tempted to use this book as the basis for my teaching module. I think this is a great resource for not only beginning/amateur writers, but for writers who are battling the evil demons of writer's block/procrastination as well.
The point to take home: you must take yourself and your writing seriously.
Seriously.
Next up: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield