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I finally got around to finishing Murderbot!
( Murderbot series )
Professors as Writers: A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing by Robert Boice
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Boice knows his stuff. He has thoroughly researched writing blocks and writing anxiety and offers solutions from a clinical angle as a mental health clinician. He also has done significant research on automatic writing and free writing and their usefulness to the blocked writer.
This is an older book, but I think this book would be really helpful for anyone who is trying to develop good writing habits. It's geared toward academics, but I honestly think it could be helpful to anyone who's trying to do any kind of writing. It's very much process-oriented: lots of worksheets to fill out to figure out where you fall on the spectrum of X issue, lots of checklists for making writing productive, etc.
Boice's basic thesis is that in order to be a productive writer, you go through four stages. The first couple of stages are just focused on generating writing; so stage one is about automatic and generative writing (essentially a kind of targeted freewriting and outlining and note taking). The second stage is about stimulus control, creating external motivators to ensure that you write on a regular basis. The third is about cutting out the negative self-talk that inhibits writing, and the fourth is about making your writing public (in a support group, to a select reader, etc). I've read a lot of writing manuals at this point, and I think what Boice's has going for it that a lot of others don't is that number one, he credits Dorothea Brande instead of ripping her off (looking at you, Julia Cameron!); also despite being a psychologist or psychiatrist, he does not insist that writing blocks or writing anxiety come from trauma. Trauma can certainly be a factor, but it's not the only or even main reason that people have trouble writing, and The Artist's Way is off-puttingly full of that insistence. Finally, it's very pragmatic and concrete; nothing in this book is vague. Everything is broken down into a process with steps, and all the steps are evidence-based in Boice's research or the research of others.
This guy wrote tons of articles and books about writing (specifically anxiety and blocks), and I think his arguments are sound.
View all my reviews
( Murderbot series )
Professors as Writers: A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing by Robert BoiceMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Boice knows his stuff. He has thoroughly researched writing blocks and writing anxiety and offers solutions from a clinical angle as a mental health clinician. He also has done significant research on automatic writing and free writing and their usefulness to the blocked writer.
This is an older book, but I think this book would be really helpful for anyone who is trying to develop good writing habits. It's geared toward academics, but I honestly think it could be helpful to anyone who's trying to do any kind of writing. It's very much process-oriented: lots of worksheets to fill out to figure out where you fall on the spectrum of X issue, lots of checklists for making writing productive, etc.
Boice's basic thesis is that in order to be a productive writer, you go through four stages. The first couple of stages are just focused on generating writing; so stage one is about automatic and generative writing (essentially a kind of targeted freewriting and outlining and note taking). The second stage is about stimulus control, creating external motivators to ensure that you write on a regular basis. The third is about cutting out the negative self-talk that inhibits writing, and the fourth is about making your writing public (in a support group, to a select reader, etc). I've read a lot of writing manuals at this point, and I think what Boice's has going for it that a lot of others don't is that number one, he credits Dorothea Brande instead of ripping her off (looking at you, Julia Cameron!); also despite being a psychologist or psychiatrist, he does not insist that writing blocks or writing anxiety come from trauma. Trauma can certainly be a factor, but it's not the only or even main reason that people have trouble writing, and The Artist's Way is off-puttingly full of that insistence. Finally, it's very pragmatic and concrete; nothing in this book is vague. Everything is broken down into a process with steps, and all the steps are evidence-based in Boice's research or the research of others.
This guy wrote tons of articles and books about writing (specifically anxiety and blocks), and I think his arguments are sound.
View all my reviews
