A Work in Progress

Let me begin by expressing my gratitude where rightfully due: to Laureen for (strongly) recommending this book, and to Holly for loaning me a copy until I could get home to purchase my own.

I’ve needed a good, swift kick in the proverbial pants, writing-wise, of late. My inner editor has been screaming loud and long. And, when she hasn’t been screaming, she’s taken to whispering vague (but still demoralizing) bits of criticism in my mind’s ear. (One of these days I really need to figure out whether my muse and inner editor are related, hero and arch-villain, or two disparate personalities within the same being. But that’s a discovery to pursue at a later time.)

This little book was exactly what I needed, when I needed it. (Yeah, yeah, I can see you nodding smugly over there…) I was so moved by what I found within its pages that, while reading it during a recent plane flight, I actually dug my notebook out of my onboard luggage and completed the first three exercises and nearly all of the fourth.

Let me say this about the book so far. The chapters are short, the writing personable and personal—and to the point, and the lessons based on experience are dead-on. This one definitely looks like a keeper, and one that I will likely return to whenever the muse and editor are deadlocked.