How to Write with Passion: Lessons from Brenda Ueland’s Classic
There’s a book about writing that I re-read every year. It does not teach whole lot of craft. But it does speak to the heart. It will probably speak to you, if you care about writing. It’s a classic book written by Brenda Ueland called If You Want to Write (affiliate link). I cannot remember how or when I first learned about it, but my wife and I bought a paperback copy ages ago, read and enjoyed it, and have re-read it over the years and even handed out copies to fellow writers as well. It’s an inspirational book first published in 1938.
Ueland was a long-time writer/journalist when she started teaching writing classes at the YMCA in her hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1934. Her students dreamed of writing but had no idea how to start. They were also blocked by fear, and frustrated by the demands of work and family. Ueland helped them to push past those blocks. When she did, she discovered that many of them were fine writers. They simply needed to be encouraged.
Ueland’s wisdom is the subject of my article this week for SleuthSayers, which is entitled:
Anyone Can Write: Be a Lion! Be a Pirate!
Here is some of what I’m saying:
[A]s she warns us early on, her book is technically about writing, but she is really speaking about anything you long to do. Her true subject is the creative life, for creation, she reminds us, is at the heart of what it means to be human.
Her thesis: As children we learn to tell stories and we’re fantastic confabulists. We intuitively know how to shape a tale with a beginning, middle, and end. Then we get older and freeze up when we sit down to write. Why? By then legions of teachers have made writing seem far too serious. If we dare to set a pencil to paper, we have been schooled, we must follow rules or...we will fail.
Ueland taught her students to set down their words as plainly as possible. If they learned to get out of their own way, they would get to the heart of their stories. “Art is infection,” she says. (Another chapter title.) If the writer feels passionate about what they commit to the page, the reader cannot help to feel it too.
If this connects with you, I hope you will check out the article. I enjoyed writing it. I have been meaning to write about the book for a while.
That said, I usually try to mention one of my books when I post here. Preferably, one that fits the topic I’m writing about. I currently have two books about the writing process. They are only available on my store. They’re called Speaking My Sleuth, and they contain about four years’ worth of my SleuthSayers pieces on writing, along with many other columns from this blog and other places I’ve published.
The two books are offered as a bundle on our store.
On the store, you will also find some wonderful new merch, like our “Keep Calm and Keep Writing” T-shirt. The images below will take you straight to the Joe & Denise store!
Click above image to check out the bundle on our shop.
BUY SPEAKING MY SLEUTH
Buy the bookS directly from Joe
Click the image to check out our t-shirts!
BUY KEEP CALM AND KEEP WRITING
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The post is called…
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The post is called…
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