- Paperback: 128 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins
- ISBN-10: 006016607X
- ISBN-13: 978-0060166076
- Product Dimensions: 24.3 x 15.4 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,468,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
The first book for writers that explores the emotional side of writing--dealing with everything from envy to guilt to the dreaded writer's block.
--This text refers to an alternate
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Friedman takes my breath away. She gets deep inside issues for writers that others seem to feel they can't even admit. And she does it in such a strong, personal way that I find myself re-reading her frequently throughout my own working process.
Format:Paperback
This is a wonderful subject: the writer's life and all its frustrations. This book, however, should have been written by someone else.
Friedan should have been a poet -- not an essayist. All of the sweet metaphors and delicate descriptions make ones teeth ache. She finishes chapters of dream-like musings with a cold, hard nugget of truth. The book could be pared down a couple hundred pages.
A lot of times, I asked myself, "What's her point?" I wanted more pain, more suffering. I wanted to relate more and couldn't.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
19 reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
What a treasure this book is!
17 Oct 1999
Format:Paperback
Writing Past Dark is so much more than a self-help book or a how-to-do-it guide. This is a book that dares to broach -- beautifully, boldly -- subjects that all writers grapple with and none talk about. Writer's envy! Writer's block! And to broach them in language that is lush and sharp. Friedman writes with soaring, exquisite precision. Her vision is original and her heart is large. Just listen to this: "A writer's concentation is ... mercy toward oneself. It is allowing imperfection. It is allowing mess. ... The mutter, the cracked voice, the false start, the false start again, all precede the song." I first read this book five years ago and when I picked it up again a month ago, it had the startling freshness of a dream.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
such a generous book!
25 April 2000
Format:Paperback
What an act of generosity it was for Bonnie Friedman to write this book! There was no earthly reason for her to share her thoughts on envy and writer's block, other than her own desire to pool her insight with other human beings who suffer the same perils and joys. A cause for celebration!
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Be Courageous and Keep Writing!
25 Jan 2002
Format:Paperback
That's the advice that Friedman gives in her introduction:
"Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing...believing in the value of their work, despite the difficulties." Friedman presents many of those difficulties in her own life in a very honest and revealing way, starting with "Envy, the Writer's Disease." The only cure for envy? "Returning to my work," the author says. Friedman covers many other problems in writing, among them: Distraction, writing about those still living, writing schools, getting the meaning into your stories, writer's block, and what happens when you finally are published. (You mean life doesn't instantly become a bed of roses? Uh...no...)
"Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing...believing in the value of their work, despite the difficulties." Friedman presents many of those difficulties in her own life in a very honest and revealing way, starting with "Envy, the Writer's Disease." The only cure for envy? "Returning to my work," the author says. Friedman covers many other problems in writing, among them: Distraction, writing about those still living, writing schools, getting the meaning into your stories, writer's block, and what happens when you finally are published. (You mean life doesn't instantly become a bed of roses? Uh...no...)
'Writing Past Dark' is an honest, moving, and sometimes funny look at the life of a writer. Writers at every level will be able to identify with many if not all of the essays here, which make for excellent reading. If you are a beginning writer, this is a great book for giving you a glimpse of what may be in store for you. For seasoned veterans, the book will be a work you can identify and sympathize with.
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