Making a Literary Life
by Carolyn See
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Book Summary Information
Author: Carolyn SeeEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2003-08-26
ISBN: 0345440463
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of Making a Literary Life
Book Review: Stick with it, it gets better.
Summary: 4 Stars
Plain and simple; the first half of the book is a wee bit corny for my taste, and really leans toward the female point of view. I am not a wine drinker, a dancer in the living room, a lover of Paris, just a blue-collar family man wanna-be writer. But as I rolled my eyes a few times, and enjoyed the conversational writing of Miss See, I made it to the nugget of the book, the 2nd half. Great practical advice on revision, promoting, etc..
So this book does have style, advice, offers something new, and worth the quick read.
Summary of Making a Literary Life
As Carolyn See says, writing guides are like preachers on Sunday-there may be a lot of them, but you can't have too many, and there's always an audience of the faithful. And while Making a Literary Life is ostensibly a book that teaches you how to write, it really teaches you how to make your interior life into your exterior life, how to find and join that community of like-minded souls you're sure is out there somewhere.Carolyn See distills a lifetime of experience as novelist, memoirist, critic, and creative-writing professor into this marvelously engaging how-to book. Partly the nuts and bolts of writing (plot, point of view, character, voice) and partly an inspirational guide to living the life you dream of, Making a Literary Life takes you from the decision to "become" a writer to three months after the publication of your first book. A combination of writing and life strategies (do not tell everyone around you how you yearn to be a writer; send a "charming note" to someone you admire in the industry five days a week, every week, for the rest of your life; find the perfect characters right in front of you), Making a Literary Life is for people not usually considered part of the literary loop: the non-East Coasters, the secret scribblers.
With sagacity, a magical sense of humor, and an abiding belief in the possibilities offered to "ordinary" people living "ordinary" lives, Carolyn See has summed up her life's work in a book so beguiling, irreverent, and giddily inspiring that you won't even realize it's changing your life until it already has.
From the Hardcover edition.
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