« Beautiful Sentences | Main | Chatty Cathy »
How scary it can be to start writing. Or to keep writing. Or to go back to writing. But we all have to take the leap, one way or another.
I'm warming up to resume work on my book after a week's vacation. (I mean it was a real vacation; I didn't keep working as I usually do. I just lolled about on a beach on Sanibel Island, hanging out with my family and reading. I felt like a huge happy vegetable.) So now I'm warming up by doing my taxes – which makes writing look like another holiday.
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451592269e2016764dc20b6970b
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Take the Leap:
This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.
As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.
Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.
Annie Proulx: Brokeback Mountain
The spare, beautiful short story the movie came from.
Zadie Smith: On Beauty
She makes it look easy. It's a page turning novel of ideas and character.
Charles Baxter: Saul and Patsy
A deep, serious, funny novel by a writer who should be better known outside of literary circles.
Karen Armstrong: The Spiral Staircase : My Climb Out of Darkness (Armstrong, Karen)
Articulate and deeply insightful.
Anne Lamott: Bird by Bird : Some Instructions on Writing and Life
A book that truly encourages you to write, understands you, makes you laugh and cry as you read it.
Rollo May: The Courage to Create
To go deeper into the creative process and yourself.
Twyla Tharp: The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use It for Life
Full of inspiration and really practical advice and exercises.
Anne Lamott: Bird by Bird : Some Instructions on Writing and Life
This is my favorite of favorites. Encouragement and humor.
Brenda Ueland: If You Want to Write : A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
Her 12 things you should know/do as a writer are timeless.
Carolyn See: Making a Literary Life
Such good advice, and so hilarious.
Deena Metzger: Writing for Your Life : Discovering the Story of Your Life's Journey
An exploration of creativity, story and spiritual practice through writing.
Dorothea Brande: Becoming a Writer
Her "artistic coma" is what we're all looking for.
Naomi Epel: Writers Dreaming: 26 Writers Talk About Their Dreams and the Creative Process
Writers reveal all their weird and wise working quirks.
Natalie Goldberg: Writing down the bones
Zen bits of advice, inspiration and wisdom.
Ralph Keyes: The Courage to Write : How Writers Transcend Fear
Like having a funny, smart, articulate friend holding your hand when you start.
Stephen King: On Writing
My copy flutters with Post-its. He writes of the true magic of writing.
Annie Dillard: The Writing Life
“A work in progress quickly becomes ferel,” she writes, and you nod yes, yes.
Donald Hall: Life Work
A poet at work, and living life with poet Jane Kenyon.
John Steinbeck: Journal of a Novel
His daily warm-up letters to his editor while writing East of Eden.
Naomi Epel: Writers Dreaming: 26 Writers Talk About Their Dreams and the Creative Process
Weird and wise ways of writers working as well as dreaming.
Stephen King: On Writing
How it all started, with smart advice for other writers.
Anne Fadiman: Ex Libris : Confessions of a Common Reader
Elegantly written essays about loving books.
Phillip Lopate: The Art of the Personal Essay : An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present
Great introduction and selection of 400 years of personal essays.
Anne Lamott: Traveling Mercies : Some Thoughts on Faith
From her heart and soul, both funny and honest.
Natalia Ginzberg: The Little Virtues
Brilliant essays to learn from and live by.
Ellen Gilchrist: Falling Through Space: The Journals of Ellen Gilchrist (Banner Books)
Actually from her broadcast NPR pieces. A portrait of a writer in family and work roles.
Andre Dubus: Broken Vessels
Includes elegant pieces full of courage written after his horrific accident.
Joan Didion: The White Album
She's a master of the contemporary essay.
Billy Collins: Sailing Alone Around the Room
Read "Introduction to Poetry". Funny, accessible, and also serious poetry.
Jane Kenyon: Otherwise : New & Selected Poems
Read the title poem first. A poem to live by.
Mary Oliver: New and Selected Poems : Volume One
Read "The Summer Day" and "The Journey" - more poems to live by.
Raymond Carver: Ultramarine
He makes it look easy. It isn't.
Joan Didion: The Year of Magical Thinking
Pure Art. I read it in one sitting.
Ulla-Carin Lindquist: Rowing without oars
Lean and illuminating prose as the author faces her own death. To be published in the U.S. in April ’06.
Carole Radziwill: What Remains
A beautifully written memoir that transcends its celebrity frame of the Kennedys.
Donald Hall: The Best Day the Worst Day
The story of the death of his wife, Jane Kenyon.
Samantha Dunn: Faith in Carlos Gomez, A Memoir of Salsa, Sex and Salvation
The title alone should make you want to read it.
Carolyn See: Dreaming, Hard Luck and Good Times in America
Witty, as well as poignant - and written with abundant generosity.
Genevieve Jurgensen: The Disappearance
The most heart-breaking memoir I've read, written as letters to a friend.
James McBride: The Color of Water
The amazing story of his white Jewish mother who had twelve black kids, all of whom grew up to earn graduate degrees.
Judy Blunt: Breaking clean
Her story of fleeing rural Montana and her family to become a writer.
Katharine Butler Hathaway: The Little Locksmith
Like finding a friend who has a deep and inspiring inner life that she'll share with you.
Kathleen Norris: Dakota
A book not only about her life and spiritual growth, but also the meaning of community and place.
Kathryn Harrison: The Kiss
The true version of her novel, "Thicker Than Water".
Mark Doty: Firebirds
Growing up gay in suburbia - funny, deeply moving, eloquent.
Mark Doty: Heaven's Coast
Some of the best writing on grief I've ever read - both spiritual and literary.
Mary Karr: The Liar's Club
The book that started the current popularity of memoir.
Maureen Murdock: Unreliable Truth
Exploration of memory and why and how one should write a memoir.
Vivian Gornick: The Situation and the Story, the Art of Personal Narrative
A writer's writer takes a deep and illuminating look at the genre.
Thanks for the suggestions. Bird by Bird is a clsisac. It even works for composition 1 students. Another that I love is Walter Mosley's This Year You Write Your Novel. A no-nonsense guide to gaining momentum and motivation.
Posted by: Yog | May 16, 2012 at 08:19 PM
I'm really lokoing forward to your book coming out. Being a "regular" college kid isn't all it's cracked up to be. In all honesty I believe you have had my dream college experience. Finding love, traveling, random expeditions just for the sake of doing it, those are all things that I didn't do until my 3rd year of college. Granted you had a free car/gas, music sale/merch sale money, and fab friends in almost every state of the country (and out of the country) to stay with. But hey, it sure has been fun to vicariously live through you. I hope someday you will write a memoir of your fantastic life as a wizard rocker. Oh and on the other thing, I'm going to say nothing except I'm sending you lots of hugs, which will hopefully help you be less frustrated about the situation. I can't promise anything though.Capcha Code word (since we haven't done one in a while)chedaftg: Exclamation from a cheese loving Nerdfighter: Chedda FTG (for the gouda!)
Posted by: Malik | July 28, 2012 at 03:01 PM
And it has changed my world to wake up and find Nick Earls has centommed on my blog! Nick, I have been reading your books for at least ten years and every one is an event and a pleasure. Having you comment here and wish me luck on MY book is just astonishing. Together with meeting Robert Forster a few months ago I can now really say my teenage dreams are fulfilled. And I love your list. ANy list that begins with Dr Seuss is awesome in my books!
Posted by: Mami | July 30, 2012 at 07:48 PM