Writer's Bookshelf: Dear Writer, by Maggie Smith
Our new series provides reviews of our favorite books on writing..
(This is the first in a new series about books on the writing process, provided to us by contributor Miranda Herring. Look for reviews of other books each month here at “The Ready Writer.”)
On page one of her book, Dear Writer: Pep Talks and Practical Advice For The Creative Life, Maggie Smith writes:
I believe creativity is our birthright as human beings. Yes, all of us. Creativity is life-changing, and we all deserve that kind of transformation. When you read a poem, or listen to a song, or watch a play, you’re not the same person afterward. You’re slightly rearranged. Your DNA is still the same, your fingerprints are still the same, you look the same in the mirror, but you aren’t exactly who you were. “Be careful,” I might tell someone when handing them a book or record, “you will be different after this.”
Not only is this a perfect introduction to the concepts of this wonderful book, it also rings true about the experience of reading it. Written from the perspective of a published author as well as a writing professor with many years of experience, Maggie shares countless examples from her own writing and life, as she walks us through the process of writing and rewriting, seeking to create our best work, and remaining open to the world around us as we go.
Dear Writer is divided into ten sections—Smith’s ten principles of creativity: attention, wonder, vision, surprise, play, vulnerability, restlessness, connection, tenacity, and hope. Within those sections, there are three chapters, sub-sections of the main idea, followed by an excellent generative writing exercise and additional suggested reading for each point.
As a writer who is primarily a poet, Smith writes through the lens of poetry, saying, “I believe our thoughts are rooted in poetry - fragments, images, and patterns that grow into something larger. The tools I share are portable; you can carry any of them into fiction, nonfiction, playwriting and screenwriting, even journalism. All of us should be using the framework of poetry as not we not only create but live.” As she shares her advice on writing, her poet’s perspective on the world and finding inspiration is thought-provoking and helpful for all creatives as they work.
The beginning of the chapter, “Writing Across Genres,” immediately brought to mind our writers of the Southern Christian Writers Conference:
If you’re writing poetry or creative nonfiction or fiction or plays or screenplays, you’re trying to write beautiful sentences. That’s the work, regardless of genre. . . I’ll be honest: Genre feels like a kind of trap to me. It’s a useful distinction for selling and shelving books, but often not a useful distinction for making them. I’m of the mind that the writer determines what they have made.
In the SCWC, we have authors who are writing their fourth work of adult fiction, while also editing an essay collection, having just published a Christmas devotional, with a stack of their latest children’s books to share. In such a wonderfully diverse and talented group of writers, this book can serve as a textbook filled with practical, nuts and bolts advice on writing, as well as encouragement to wake up and create fearlessly with enthusiasm.
The refrain of “creating beautiful sentences” is a thread that is woven through Smith’s writing as well. She leans into this idea, focusing on crafting sentences well, all the while walking us through many helpful ideas for researching, finding inspiration, creating, and revising our work.
For example, in her chapter on “vision,” she suggests that, when starting a new piece, it may be helpful to first read the work of another author we admire and start a “word bank” of words that catch our eye, ones that we would not necessarily normally use in our writing. From there, she suggests working with this word bank to see where it might lead us, finding new combinations of words or images that we had not seen before.
In addition to offering up many such ideas for the process of writing, she gives two and a half pages filled with revision strategies, always helpful to the writer in those trenches, and these tips alone make it well worth your reading time.
I plan on gifting Dear Writer to all of my writer friends this year. Safe to say, Maggie has definitely set the bar high for upcoming reviews of books on writing.
I’ll leave you with the beginning of her chapter on vision. May it remind us all to create fearlessly:
My favorite advice from anyone about making art, period, is from the artist Sol LeWitt: “Don’t worry about cool, make your own uncool. . . you are not responsible for the world-you are only responsible for your work-so DO IT. And don’t think your work has to conform to any preconceived form, idea or flavor. It can be anything you want it to be.”
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Miranda Herring is a contributing writer for “The Ready Writer” who began blogging her journey living with autoimmune disease as a way both to express what she was experiencing and to connect with others who were walking a similar path. Since then, she has written a devotional for those living with chronic illness and is now at work on her second book. Check out her book on Kindle. Read her blog.