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Write Free: Attracting the Creative Life
Equal parts writer’s workshop and spiritual journey, this open-hearted guide will show you how to attain and sustain the creative life you desire. Based on a time-tested principle and using methods pioneered by the authors, Write Free provides a wealth of inspiration, advice, and activities. Exploring how we attract the conditions and events in our lives, Write Free is an invaluable aid for writers, creative souls, and others who want to envision and achieve the inspired life of their dreams.
- GenresWriting
166 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
21 people are currently reading
72 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Lawton
11 books33 followersRebecca Lawton is an award-winning author and fluvial geologist, former Grand Canyon river guide, and aspiring bodhisattva. She lives and writes on an ephemeral stream in northern California steelhead country, at the foot of mountains walked forever by Miwok and Pomo.
Her writing has won a Fulbright Visiting Research Chair, Nautilus Book Award, Ellen Meloy Fund Award for Desert Writers, Waterston Desert Writing Prize, WILLA for original softcover fiction, three Pushcart Prize nominations, and residencies at Hedgebrook and The Island Institute.
Her writing has won a Fulbright Visiting Research Chair, Nautilus Book Award, Ellen Meloy Fund Award for Desert Writers, Waterston Desert Writing Prize, WILLA for original softcover fiction, three Pushcart Prize nominations, and residencies at Hedgebrook and The Island Institute.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 22, 2015
I wasn't impressed by this book. It was all a lot of touchy-feely exercises on getting in touch with your negative feelings and overcoming them, and not really much on the gritty reality of creating a life that involves regular creativity (like dealing with a full time job, children, life crises, etc.).
That's not to say it's necessarily a bad book, it's just not useful for me. Some people will probably find it incredibly useful and healing, so I guess take my opinion with a grain of salt?
That's not to say it's necessarily a bad book, it's just not useful for me. Some people will probably find it incredibly useful and healing, so I guess take my opinion with a grain of salt?
July 14, 2008
(Adapted from www.diyplanner.com)
One of my 2008 goals is to continue to build on my creative and writing life. I want writing and art to seep from every aspect of my being and help me grow as a writer and artist in this world. However, occasionally the daily grind of errands, doctor's appointments, and laundry push back the available time I want to devote to this practice. Then I heard about Write Free, by Rebecca Lawton and Jordan E. Rosenfeld. The title immediately drew me in. Finally, a book proposing to help concretely build, maintain, and attract a fully functioning creative lifestyle.
Write Free is an amazing guide into the world of the Law of Attraction. The The Law of Attraction, which isn't really a real law in the scientific sense, states that your thoughts (both conscious and unconscious), all the positive and negative emotions that run around in your head, help bring them into reality. For example, if I want a particular job, but send them my resume and think that they'll never call me back because I'm not good enough, smart enough, or just didn't think the phone interview went well enough, then the end result is that they won't call me and I will probably not get the job. Conversely, if I've submitted an essay for publication in a book and know that I've written a smart and thought provoking piece that'll help add to the book's premise and discussion, then when I submit the essay, all that good thinking and energy will aid it in being chosen for the space in the anthology. Yes, I realize that these two ideas are very generalized versions of the actual law in motion, but they do illustrate how this law works on a basic level. Books and movies, like "The Secret," have helped to propel this notion into the public eye and if you want to learn more about this idea, you can refer to those references for more information and illustrations on how this principle works.
Write Free expands on the law of attraction by showing how you can use it to bring about more creativity and writing into your life (or art, if visual works are more your thing). In the introduction, the authors mention that to write free means: "writing done in an open-minded, openhearted state of consciousness... and that it expresses the state of writing our deepest desires." With this definition in mind, the book then becomes a workshop where they use personal stories and exercises to help you define what it means to be creative and how to live a "more fulfilling and sustaining creative life."
The book follows a four step outline to show you just how to do this. Each step of the process builds off the other and has the ultimate goal on freeing your mind from negativity which will allow you to focus on only the work and parts of a creative life that you want to include.
First, they take you through a cleansing process, that allows you to get rid of unwanted feelings ad thoughts. Lawton and Rosenfeld believe that in order to get what you want, you need to get rid of the feelings and things you do not want. Therefore, exercises in this section revolve around dealing with negative thoughts and how to turn them into positive counterparts. Once you've learned how to transform the negative thoughts into positive ones, the next step of this process is to figure out what you want in your life. They call this step revising, because it shows you what to cut or remove from your life so that you can begin living the life you want to have. So all the exercises in this section help you to define the life you want to have. You create the activities, thoughts, people, works, etc. here. Step three, teaches you how to focus on the positive in your life. The exercises here help motivate and inspire you to dream big and take small steps to reach your goals. Finally, the last step is to literally write free... to indulge in your imagination and use the power of positive thought to manifest your dreams into reality.
Each chapter begins with a story that happened to one (or both) of the authors that helps to illustrate the point the chapter teaches. The rest of the chapter, then, contains many exercises, or games, that give you the opportunity to explore how the principle works and affects your life. Now, if you've been on this site long enough, you'll realize that I love books that contain questions that can be used for journal prompts. This book does not disappoint. There are many games to try out and answer. What I also like is that Lawton and Rosenfeld do take you through an example of each exercise so you get an idea of how to perform the task that they're asking you to take.
Write Free contains one of the more interesting approaches to creativity and the writing life that I've read in a long time. I was amazed at the depth of personal experience and exercises that went into composing this manuscript. If you're into new ways of recapturing the writing/creative life, I highly recommend you get this book. If you are interested in exploring exercises that will help you build up your creative life, then you'll love this book. Bottom line is that this book will help you train your thoughts to aid your creative goals and endeavors with the power of positive thinking. Unfortunately, it's not available on Amazon.com but if you click the links to the book's image and title, you can get a copy directly from the publishers themselves.
One of my 2008 goals is to continue to build on my creative and writing life. I want writing and art to seep from every aspect of my being and help me grow as a writer and artist in this world. However, occasionally the daily grind of errands, doctor's appointments, and laundry push back the available time I want to devote to this practice. Then I heard about Write Free, by Rebecca Lawton and Jordan E. Rosenfeld. The title immediately drew me in. Finally, a book proposing to help concretely build, maintain, and attract a fully functioning creative lifestyle.
Write Free is an amazing guide into the world of the Law of Attraction. The The Law of Attraction, which isn't really a real law in the scientific sense, states that your thoughts (both conscious and unconscious), all the positive and negative emotions that run around in your head, help bring them into reality. For example, if I want a particular job, but send them my resume and think that they'll never call me back because I'm not good enough, smart enough, or just didn't think the phone interview went well enough, then the end result is that they won't call me and I will probably not get the job. Conversely, if I've submitted an essay for publication in a book and know that I've written a smart and thought provoking piece that'll help add to the book's premise and discussion, then when I submit the essay, all that good thinking and energy will aid it in being chosen for the space in the anthology. Yes, I realize that these two ideas are very generalized versions of the actual law in motion, but they do illustrate how this law works on a basic level. Books and movies, like "The Secret," have helped to propel this notion into the public eye and if you want to learn more about this idea, you can refer to those references for more information and illustrations on how this principle works.
Write Free expands on the law of attraction by showing how you can use it to bring about more creativity and writing into your life (or art, if visual works are more your thing). In the introduction, the authors mention that to write free means: "writing done in an open-minded, openhearted state of consciousness... and that it expresses the state of writing our deepest desires." With this definition in mind, the book then becomes a workshop where they use personal stories and exercises to help you define what it means to be creative and how to live a "more fulfilling and sustaining creative life."
The book follows a four step outline to show you just how to do this. Each step of the process builds off the other and has the ultimate goal on freeing your mind from negativity which will allow you to focus on only the work and parts of a creative life that you want to include.
First, they take you through a cleansing process, that allows you to get rid of unwanted feelings ad thoughts. Lawton and Rosenfeld believe that in order to get what you want, you need to get rid of the feelings and things you do not want. Therefore, exercises in this section revolve around dealing with negative thoughts and how to turn them into positive counterparts. Once you've learned how to transform the negative thoughts into positive ones, the next step of this process is to figure out what you want in your life. They call this step revising, because it shows you what to cut or remove from your life so that you can begin living the life you want to have. So all the exercises in this section help you to define the life you want to have. You create the activities, thoughts, people, works, etc. here. Step three, teaches you how to focus on the positive in your life. The exercises here help motivate and inspire you to dream big and take small steps to reach your goals. Finally, the last step is to literally write free... to indulge in your imagination and use the power of positive thought to manifest your dreams into reality.
Each chapter begins with a story that happened to one (or both) of the authors that helps to illustrate the point the chapter teaches. The rest of the chapter, then, contains many exercises, or games, that give you the opportunity to explore how the principle works and affects your life. Now, if you've been on this site long enough, you'll realize that I love books that contain questions that can be used for journal prompts. This book does not disappoint. There are many games to try out and answer. What I also like is that Lawton and Rosenfeld do take you through an example of each exercise so you get an idea of how to perform the task that they're asking you to take.
Write Free contains one of the more interesting approaches to creativity and the writing life that I've read in a long time. I was amazed at the depth of personal experience and exercises that went into composing this manuscript. If you're into new ways of recapturing the writing/creative life, I highly recommend you get this book. If you are interested in exploring exercises that will help you build up your creative life, then you'll love this book. Bottom line is that this book will help you train your thoughts to aid your creative goals and endeavors with the power of positive thinking. Unfortunately, it's not available on Amazon.com but if you click the links to the book's image and title, you can get a copy directly from the publishers themselves.
July 31, 2016
There were parts of this book I found really inspiring and parts which were dull, although I suspect it may have had something to do with my own changes in mood or attitude. Basically, I found the material more valuable spiritually than creatively, so that the activities devoted specifically to the craft of writing felt less effective than those devoted to lifestyle and general approach to life.
The writing is warm and relatable, especially the sections about the authors' own experiences. I would recommend this book for authors who struggle with expressing emotions in their writing, so long as they are prepared to tackle the writing exercises; otherwise, in my opinion, it really speaks to the inner artist in the wider sense, teaching awareness that can ultimately fill the well of experience for future creative expression.
The writing is warm and relatable, especially the sections about the authors' own experiences. I would recommend this book for authors who struggle with expressing emotions in their writing, so long as they are prepared to tackle the writing exercises; otherwise, in my opinion, it really speaks to the inner artist in the wider sense, teaching awareness that can ultimately fill the well of experience for future creative expression.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews