reviews-courage

[Keyes’s] latest work is, on the surface, an entertaining and insightful how-to book for aspiring and working writers….What makes it so appealing is its straightforward approach to the writing life and to its often eccentric practitioners….If you’ve ever wondered what happens before a writer shows up at your local bookstore to sign The Great American …

The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear is unlike many previous how-to books about writing. Why? Because most books focus on how to overcome fear. Keyes bases his book on the premise that writers should face their fear and transcend it through courage.

His book taught me more about the “creative process” than all the writers’ voices shelved in my bookstore’s “elite corps.” Keyes succeeds where others have failed because he understands that “There are very few ‘writing problems’ as such; only human ones.”

Keyes can be helpful to fledgling writers who are struggling with doubt and lack of confidence. The Courage to Write can be read in times of tribulation, much like a collection of inspirational verses, then put away when the words are flowing.

Keyes provides compelling reading for writers at all levels, from student to journeyman.

Highly readable and laced with true-confession anecdotes about the trepidations that dog most writers, Keyes’s book is an attempt to show nervous novices how to turn fear toward more productive ends.