The Writer’s Life: “Best book of all time for the aspiring writer/beginner? Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande.”

Thoughtful, kind, encouraging and wise – those are the words by which I characterize Dorothea Brande. Her husband may have been a fascist, but she had a gift of releasing talent in people. Read this, from “Becoming a Writer,” and you’ll see what I mean. 

“Set yourself to discover if you can see any connection between a good morning’s work and the conditions of the evening before. Can you tell whether or not the good writing came after you had spent an active day, or a quiet one? Did you write more easily after going to bed early,  or after a short sleep? Is there any observable connection between seeing certain friends and the vividness or dullness of the next morning’s work? How did you write in the morning after you had been to the theater, to an exhiition of pictures, or to a dance? Notice such things and try to arrange for the type of activity which results in good work. “

 

Comments

[John O'Brien]

She puts fragments of what we know into concrete actions. Book is on my list, thanks Frank

JOHN