Surrender Your Weapons: Writing to Heal

by Valley Haggard, Suzanne L Vinson (Illustrations), Llewellyn Hensley (Design)

Surrender Your We have abused and belittled ourselves long enough. We have been our own worst enemies, our own worst critics, the harshest arbiters on Judgment Day. We have ignored and neglected our writing altogether or shot it down in infant form, before it had a chance to take its first breath. The first rule of The Halfway House is to stop, to arrest our masochistic tendencies, and let our work be what it is.
-- The Halfway House for Writers
Of all the lessons I've needed to learn as a writer and a human being, Surrender Your Weapons resurfaces most. Weapons take many forms, many of which we wield against ourselves. Judgment, comparison, impossible expectations, perfectionism, doubt, insecurity, destructive behavior, self-sabotage. Surrender Your Weapons began as the first rule of The Halfway House and grew until it became a book all its own. When we surrender our weapons, the truth begins to emerge, brave and beautiful, in our lives and on the page.

204 pages, ebook

Published July 17, 2018

Reviews

[Melissa Sinclair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Valley is a compassionate and courageous guide for any writer who needs to venture into unexplored places. How can we write our worst moments, our darkest nights? Valley lights a candle and shows you how it's done. How can we write our greatest joys — and how can we write afterward, when the storms of our lives have quieted? Tranquil seas are boring. Or are they? Get in Valley's submarine. Descend.

Part memoir, part guidebook, Surrender Your Weapons is beautifully written, moving and inspiring.

[Deanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently took a 6-week writing workshop with Valley Haggard and it was excellent. This book (and her first one, The Halfway House for Writers) offers a huge amount of permission to write and share honestly, and her writing classes provide an incredibly effective framework for connecting deeply with oneself and others. Valley seems to be a teacher who really walks her talk.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

illuminating, poignant, inspiring

[Cindy Cunningham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will motivate you to write no matter what your purpose. You can read it from cover to cover or you can open it wherever the spirit moves you. Whether you write for therapy, literary prestige, fun, or a combination, you can find something to spur you on in your process. Valley Haggard’s writing will make you laugh out loud, jump up and down in joy and in terror, and settle in for a good story telling. Students, individual writers, and teachers will all love this book as it offers both examples of brave story telling and brilliant moments of writing advice and reflection on the process.

I have used the book for myself and in the classroom and it always produces a magic--try it. You won't regret it!