Writing from the Heart

by Nancy Slonim Aronie

With warm, lively, often humorous anecdotes, advice, and lessons, this unique approach to creative writing as a path to healing the self shows how to reverse the damaging effects done to writers in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786882875
• ISBN13: 9780786882878
• Release Date: February 1998
• Publisher: Hachette Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 17 to 18 years
• Grade Range: Grade 12 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Need a jumpstart?

Ok, so you want to write "your story", or create a character that surprise! is so very like you. Or maybe you just want to start writing in first person present. But you can't!!! You try but it just doesn't come out right. You resist, you tell yourself that you can't do it. That you suck. Well, perhaps you honestly do but before you start to believe it pick up this book. I think that the real problem, for me anyway, when it comes to writing first person present or developing a character that has experiences based upon mine, is fear. Fear of what might happen if I dare to dig into my life, my feelings. What this book did for me was help me to get over that fear. Or it at least inspired me and made me want to keep trying to write my truth. It's difficult when writing like this to REMEMBER two things: It's FICTION and no one HAS to see it but you. This book isn't dry and it isn't authoritative. In a witty, conversational manner Nancy gives you reasons to write your truth, to get out of your way, to break the barriers that are keeping you from writing something real and honest. Give yourself permission to feel and pick up this book! I think you will like it ;)

The next best thing to being there

I've taken several workshops with Nancy and have always come away exhilirated and with the kernels of ideas for many new essays. She just has this way of stimulating your brain to make new leaps and insights. Basically, she teaches you how to get out of your own way and let your creativity flow. Her main thrust is to create a safe place in your mind where you can risk trying new things. The book is just like talking with her -- if you can't take one of her courses, it's the next best thing.

Writers and Artists, Don't Miss This Book!

After purchasing numerous "how to overcome writer's block" books, I accidentally stumbled across this book at the public library. What a find! I am now buying my own copy and giving the other books away.... For me, this book is more inspirational and constructive than even Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird and Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. The writer addresses some typical writing blocks and how to navigate them. But this isn't your typical "how to" book. It's a personal, soulful book that exposes the root of creativity. I now see that my inexplicable writing block has been, in truth, a terror of FEELING. My thanks to the author for this insight ----- and for many other remarkable insights.

This book touched my soul as a beginning writer

"Writing from the heart," touched my soul.As I read her words I felt like parts of myself were being revealed to the world. Every fear I ever had about writing was layed out in front of me, somehow setting me free. The chapter," To Thine Own Self, Write The Bloody Truth," opened me up to my own truths. I looked deeper inside myself and the relationships I have with thoes around me. How facinating it is to write truthfully about your husband, your children, your closest friends from your heart. It is a real eye opener.Anyone who ever has had a desire to write should read this book.

Warm, Universal, Inspiring

NPR commentator and writing guru Nancy Slonim Aronie has written a book which is destined to become a classic of the genre. Her lessons on writing are not so much pieces of advice as gentle stories of how humans can thrive--and heal--by expressing their truth in words. Aronie's book inevitably brings to mind such titles as Lamott's BIRD BY BIRD, Goldberg's WRITING DOWN THE BONES, and Cameron's THE ARTIST'S WAY. But this is a new writer, and a new way of looking at the creative process, and the world. Funny, personal, and caring, WRITING FROM THE HEART will leave you uplifted and touched to the core. Read it, and then buy another for your best writing friend. Don't miss this book.