 | If You Want to Write: A Book About Art, Independence, and Spirit offers whole-hearted encouragement to writers of any skill level or none. The core message of the book is that everyone can access their creative spirit, and the more we embrace our creativity, the more readily it flows. The author says our words are most powerful when we speak our truth, use our own unique voice—rather than trying to speak as we think we should or to sound “better” than our true voice. Instead she notes, “ if you speak or write from yourself you cannot help being original.” The book has a positive, encouraging tone throughout, similar to the wonderful You’ve Got a Book in You. |
For example:
“I want to show you that millions of human beings, with education and without it, think and feel things that are worth saying and then can write them just as beautifully, like great men and women and true poets. I want you all to know that. This is so that you will not be discouraged, annihilated by rejection slips, and [not] too much awed and inhibited by successful writers, but will work along in your own way [and pace].”
“If you are going to write, you must become aware of the richness in you and come to believe in it and know it is there so that you can write opulently and with self-trust. If you once become aware of it, and have faith in it, you will be all right.”
“Know that you have talent, are original, and have something important to say.”
“I want to show you that millions of human beings, with education and without it, think and feel things that are worth saying and then can write them just as beautifully, like great men and women and true poets. I want you all to know that. This is so that you will not be discouraged, annihilated by rejection slips, and [not] too much awed and inhibited by successful writers, but will work along in your own way [and pace].”
“If you are going to write, you must become aware of the richness in you and come to believe in it and know it is there so that you can write opulently and with self-trust. If you once become aware of it, and have faith in it, you will be all right.”
“Know that you have talent, are original, and have something important to say.”
 | Our creative superpower is telling the truth as we understand it, in our own words. She says the more accurately we portray our perceptions, the better our writing will be: “your impulsive, free way of saying it will be better, closer, truer than the planned contrived way.” However, she warns against trying too hard to sound sincere, “for that too is a kind of falseness. When you are honest there is no trying about it. You are just quietly honest and that is all there is to it.” “The truth, like life itself, is always startling, strange, unexpected. But when the truth is told about it everybody knows at once that it is life itself and not made up. [In uninspired] fiction, movies, etc., everything is smoothed out to seem plausible—villains more bad, heroes splendid, heroines glamorous, and so on, so that no one believes a word of it.” |
The author believes creativity lives in the present moment. Our creativity “comes to us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness. [This creative flow] should feel like . . . a child stringing beads in kindergarten—happy, absorbed, and quietly putting one bead on after another.”
This playfulness reminded me of Ray Bradbury’s emphasis on play as a means of freeing the creative subconscious in Zen in the Art of Writing.
This playfulness reminded me of Ray Bradbury’s emphasis on play as a means of freeing the creative subconscious in Zen in the Art of Writing.
 | She warns against perfectionism, saying “there are wonderfully gifted people who write a little piece, and then write it over and over again to make it perfect, absolutely, flawlessly perfect, a gem. [They’re driven by] the fear that the little literary pearl will not be perfect and unassailable. But this is all a loss of time and a pity. For in them is a fountain of exuberant life and poetry and literature and imagination, but it cannot get out because they are so anxiously busy polishing the gem. And this is the point: if they kept writing new things freely and generously and with careless truth, then they would know how to fix up the pearl and make it good, in two seconds, without any work at all.” Instead she urges us to: “Work freely and rollickingly as though [you were] talking to a friend who loves you.” |
When revising work, she advocates digging for the truth of the story: “When you have written a story and it has come back to you a few times and you sit there trying to write it over again and make it more impressive, do not try to think of better words, more gripping words. Try to see the people [more accurately]. It is not yet deeply enough imagined. See them—just what they did and how they looked and felt. Then write it. If you can at last see it clearly, writing is easy.”
She also addresses pacing in revision: “The secret of being interesting is to move along as fast as the mind of the reader (or listener) can take it in. Both must march along in the same tempo. That is why it is good to read your writing aloud to yourself. As soon as your voice drags, cross that part out.”
She also addresses pacing in revision: “The secret of being interesting is to move along as fast as the mind of the reader (or listener) can take it in. Both must march along in the same tempo. That is why it is good to read your writing aloud to yourself. As soon as your voice drags, cross that part out.”
 | Rather than focusing on writing to pleasing critics or editors, she advocates focusing on art as a generous act of sharing our creativity with others. She uses the artist Vincent Van Gogh as an example: “the creative impulse of Van Gogh, a great genius, was simply loving what he saw and then wanting to share it with others, not for the purpose of showing off, but out of generosity—” |
If You Want to Write is full of wonderful examples of truthful, immediate writing, and is told in a casual, engaging style. First published in 1938, the book is dated by occasional use of the (non)universal male pronoun and using the term "man" to refer to all humans, but I found these few instances easy to overlook. Above all it’s a delightful book to help anyone embrace their creative spirit.
In the author’s words: “Be Bold. Be Free. Be Truthful.”
In the author’s words: “Be Bold. Be Free. Be Truthful.”
Read other encouraging writing books: You’ve Got a Book in You, Zen in the Art of Writing,
Fearless Writing, The Courage to Write, Art & Fear, Writing Down the Bones
Fearless Writing, The Courage to Write, Art & Fear, Writing Down the Bones
