Writing with Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process

by Peter Elbow

Book Overview

A classic handbook for anyone who needs to write, Writing With Power speaks to everyone who has wrestled with words while seeking to gain power with them. Here, Peter Elbow emphasizes that the essential activities underlying good writing and the essential exercises promoting it are really not difficult at all.

Employing a cookbook approach, Elbow provides the reader (and writer) with various recipes: for getting words down on paper, for revising,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195120183
• ISBN13: 9780195120189
• Release Date: July 1998
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

It worked for me!

It seems as if writing books can roughly be divided in two categories. First, there are the books that tell you to plan your writing project in advance in meticulous detail. Second, there are books that tell you NOT to plan anything in advance, but urge you to start writing until you drop. Elbow's book is in the second category. Though it seems as if his method of "freewriting" leads you nowhere, the book helped me tremendously. Elbow describes several techniques, all of which can be of help (including the planned writing strategy) to those who have to write stuff. However, his own tack is what he calls the "loop writing" process. During this process, one blends freewriting techniques with more directed writing techniques. The emphasis, however, is on the creativity stimulated by freewriting. The reason why Elbow emphasizes freewriting is extremely simple, and by experience I know it to be true. Elbow writes that when we write we tend to be our own critic. We evaluate immediately what we write, we edit on the fly, and therefore get stuck rather quickly. Elbow urges us to leave the editing until a later time, and simply start writing whatever comes to mind. You can always throw out stuff later. That way, you'll create a work flow, that is beneficial to your creativity. Just read the book and Elbow's wonderful advice, and see if this works for you as it did for me. I took Elbow's advice seriously in my scholarly writing (I am a philosopher of religion and theologian at Leiden University, the Netherlands). Elbow's book was a real source of inspiration and made writing a lot of fun. At this stage, I have finished a 250-page book (which will be published in two months with one of the major Dutch publishing companies), and several articles. I don't claim it will work for everybody, but it certainly worked for me. Just read the book and try it - if it doesn't work for you, at least you've read a wonderful book!

Worth it, I promise.

I have been an ardent reader all my life, as far back as I can remember. I can remember tearing through my bookcase on some days as if I was physically hungry. Books were always a source of enjoyment for me, - better than dreaming, man - but they were also always a mystery to me. How could someone do something like this? Where do people find all this incredible material inside? Reading was my joy. Writing was never that. Instead, it was always difficult, and frustrating and humiliating. Oh, my writing was all right when it was done. But it took hours piled on hours of struggle to get there. I didn't understand how writers did it, how they could create entire novels - and not just one to each author! - when it took me a week to write one silly page for a book report. And not only did it take forever; it was never fun. It was hard and brutal, exacting and costly. I thought that when you wrote something it had to come out perfect, or nearly so, the first time it was copied down. Everything changed. This book did it for me. I read Elbow's advice on freewriting to create, how trying to edit and originate at the same time choked the spark off before it could get started. Writing freely without excruciating over what word to put where, then going back after you had some material to work with - it was revelatory. More; for the first time in my life, writing was fun. Really, really fun. It's stayed that way, in all the time since I read "Writing With Power." If I'm very lucky, it will become what I do with my life - but it is only for reading this book that I have any shot at all.If you have any ambition at all to write, if you have ever experienced the frustration of knowing you have something to say without knowing how to say it, read this book. And start writing, right now. Just make sure you don't stop. You can always go back later.

Unorthodox & Helpful

In Writing with Power, Peter Elbow shares several of his thoughts on techniques for everyone and anyone who writes. Divided into several sections with titles of "Audience" and "Feedback," Elbow walks writers through every step of the writing process, including thoughts on relieving writer's block, sharing individual writing with others, and several different types of actual writing processes and revision. His unorthodox approach to teaching how to write is something that inevitably spills over into this book. Personally, I found this book to be very useful in my own personal writing. I never would have considered giving myself a set amount of time to get something done (and stopping when that time is over) or adding a dialogue to a serious paper. I would also have never given myself permission to "waste" my time on something as frivolous as freewriting to get my mind going. Writing with Power is easy to read and highly enjoyable. His suggestions are valuable and very applicable to every kind of writing. Elbow is not afraid to go out on a limb in his own writing, which only serves as proof that Elbow "practices what he preaches" - and that it can work in daily writing.

A sane, guiding mentor for an often painful process

Peter Elbow gave me permission to write and helped shut down the internal editors in my head. If you're stuck, read this book. He's the best writing teacher I've never had!

A suggestive, practical, thoughtful aid to writers

Dr. Elbow augments the usual writing suggestions by exploring the impact writing has on the reader. He reaches levels of aid and analysis that can't easily be put into words, but rather felt. After reading this book I couldn't wait to apply this insight to my next professional document. I was also able to give clearer guidelines to my collaborators to improve the value of their feedback to me.