reviews-courage

The hardest part of being a freelance writer is finding the courage to put your neck on the line. First, when you open yourself up to write, whether its fiction, non-fiction or a letter to your best friend, you have to open up about yourself to bring life to the writing. Secondly, writers need the …

A compelling and helpful book for incipient or experienced writers.

Keyes shares his insights with us, encouraging us to find and use the power of positive anxiety, to write beyond all those concerns, to write in the nude if it stimulates you to write at your best.

Although aimed at those who toil in the writing trenches, Keyes’s anecdotal approach to the topic makes the book interesting for nonwriters as well. Stories of the rituals, totems and habits of working writers trying to manage their anxiety make fascinating reading for anyone who has ever wondered about how writers work.

Ralph Keyes’s marvelous little book, The Courage to Write, is full of uplifting suggestions … [a] down-to-earth book full of encouragement and wisdom suitable for both the master writer and the timid novice.

Keyes includes an insightful chapter on motivations to write, including the desire to stick one’s tongue out at the people from one’s past … Keyes has written interesting chapters about writer’s block as well as the totems and rituals that famous writers have used to help them overcome their blocks. He also covers the positive …