The Writer's Survival Guide

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: An excellent book full of tips, commonsense and reassurance. At times reading it is like talking to a Dutch Uncle. I highly recommend it. Ms Simon touches all the highs and lows a beginning or even experienced writer has undergone. Get it, read it, savour and recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: It sits next to Gardner's Art of Fiction on my shelf
Review: Finally, a book about the psychological barriers which writers create and attempt to overcome in the holy pursuit of the word. A great instructive and inspirational book for novice writers.

Rating:
Summary: An engrossing, compelling, and incredibly helpful read!
Review: Most writing books try to be heavy on practical stuff--these three steps to pull yourself out of a funk. These five steps to bolster your confidence. Try one of these six things when you're suffering from writer's block. In contrast, "The Writer's Survival Guide" is rather "soft," or abstract. Yet this in no way prevents it from being helpful!

This book covers issues I haven't seen dealt with anywhere else. Where else can you find out how your friends are likely to react--good and bad--when you get your book published, and how to cope with that? If writing is still a roller coaster ride for you, rife with depressions and difficulties and confusions, then you owe it to yourself to read a copy of this book. If you still aren't sure whether you want to be a writer, or under what terms (full time? Weekends? The occasional weeknight?), then this book should be able to help you find your answer.

The writing is rich and evocative; it would be difficult to read it and not connect with what the author is telling you. Abstract concepts are conveyed in ways that apply to your everyday life and work. Ms. Simon provides interesting and surprising insights into our feelings and actions. She also takes into account both the heavily dedicated die-hard writers, and the "weekend warriors"--something that few writers do. The book is presented in a conversational and friendly tone that makes it easy for you to absorb its lessons.

So if you're still debating whether or not to be a writer; if you aren't sure how to handle the emotional rollercoaster that writing can be; or if you're having problems sitting down to write, this book could help. If you aren't sure what sort of education you need to be a writer; if you don't even know where to start; if you aren't sure how to handle criticism; or you think you've contracted that ill known as "writer's block"--this book might help. If you worry about rejection slips and wonder what success would be like, Ms. Simon can fill you in on the details.

I feel as though I should walk out on the street, find an aspiring writer, hand them my copy of the book, and make sure they read it. Right now.