Becoming a Writer

Brande's book helped pioneer the contemporary monster genre of books on the writing life. Excellent book for all beginning writers and is just as useful for those who have been writing for a while. I would recommend this well edited edition to all: [URL not allowed]-Write.........more

I read this classic, first published in 1934, thinking it might be able to help me write well. Instead, it merely showed me why I am not a writer. Why I cannot be a writer. Why I've stopped writing reviews here at goodreads and why I have plenty of books which I've finished reading and now find diff......more

Un mic manual de exerciții fizice și psihice pentru un tînăr care și-a pus în cap să devină scriitor profesionist. N-aș fi citit acest volum bizar dacă n-aș fi dat, într-o anchetă din The Guardian (20 februarie 2010), peste acest îndemn semnat de Hilary Mantel: „Citește Cum să devii un scriitor de D......more

The date is sometime in the late 1980s. The place – the Jamaica station of the Long Island Railroad. I am sitting in a westbound train, book in hand, like Hopper’s girl in Compartment C. I have the luxury of not having to change trains at Jamaica. I am nestled in my seat. Comfy and cozy. The train s......more

On 13 September, I posted a piece on the difficulties that often beset writers on my blog. In that post I mentioned Dorothea Brande’s excellent book, Becoming a Writer, and, having discovered I had never actually reviewed this seminal work, promised I would do so. I re-read the book, and here’s that......more