Writing from the Heart: Tapping the Power of Your Inner Voice

by Nancy Slonim Aronie

With warm, lively, often humorous anecdotes, advice, and lessons, this unique approach to creative writing as a path to healing the self shows how to reverse the damaging effects done to writers in school, where red pens disciplined grammar and taught them to mistrust their natural ability as storytellers--freezing them in their creative tracks NPR sponsorships .

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published February 23, 1998

Reviews

[Cara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an enjoyable book to read--I like her stories, advice, and general tone--but dang it makes writing sound hard! I don't know how I got so lucky (maybe it's because I'm not writing fiction), but unless I'm working on a brand new blog and super self-conscious about sharing it with people, I rarely experience the problems she describes. I just pretend I'm talking to an imaginary friend who's sort of a composite of my top three real friends, and start typing. Then I go back and tighten it up. If it's computer science, I change to an imaginary composite of my three favorite computer science buddies and pretend they actually care about the topic in question and want to learn it. That's it.

Reading this book makes me think either I'm living a charmed life, or my writing really sucks and I have no idea. Or I'm not a real writer. But actually, reading books like this makes me really convinced that I never want to be a "real writer" of the sort who appears in books about writing. I have no interest in the hoop- and gatekeeper-laden world of traditional publishing. All that energy and angst wasted on proposals, cover letters, submission tracking, and rejection letters, and all those delays! I think I'll stick with the e-world. Statistically, nobody makes any money as a writer in the traditional model anyway, so all I have to lose is a lot of hassle.

Each chapter also includes a small exercise to help the reader find inspiration. I really hope this doesn't give me recurrence of the writer's block jinx I got last time I touched a book like this.

...


The rest of the book went the same. I enjoyed it, but it made me tense about writing.

One awesome thing to remember from this book, though: She retells the following story from Dr. RAchel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom

A miserably poor man is walking down the road, shabby clothes, sandals tied with rope. Shiva and Shakti, the divine couple in Hinduism, watch, and Shakti is moved with pity for the man. She suggests and then baits Shiva into dropping a bag of gold in front of the man to fix things for him, since he's so good. Shiva doesn't want to because the man isn't ready, but gets tired of arguing and does it: a big bag of gold, right in the path in front of the man.

The man comes around a bend and sees the bag. "Aha, " he says. "Look, there is a large rock. How fortunate that I have seen it. I might have torn these poor sandals of mine even further." He carefully steps over it and goes on his way.

In this book, the bag of gold is a metaphor for writing in the author's life: she kept stepping over writing for years, even though it was right in front of her. I have a feeling I'll be using it as a metaphor for something else at some point. Don't know what, but wanted to note it so I can find it again.

[Shao Pin Hoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've just read 2 chapters of this book and is already enjoying immensely. If you want to write authentically, with integrity and, as an act of giving, this is the book to read. Every chapter takes you through a step in getting there and ends with a very apt exercise. For instance, in the 2nd chapter, Schmoose with the Muse, Nancy Aronie would make you write a 100-word prose that calls out to your muse. Nice.

[Erin Mccarty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I keep this book in my purse. I consider this the jump-start that I need to write after a bad day at work or an evening of aimless procrastination. Aronie offers chapters of encouragement, each ending with a writing exercise that forces the reader to dig down into the aquifer where truth resides. I often skip around to different chapters, so I'm not entirely sure I've even finished the book, which is exciting each time I pick it up again.

[Denise Santomauro · Rating 5 out of 5]

While the title of this is Writing From the Heart, I believe it is more about getting to your authentic self. It's a great book for anyone who wants to dig deeper into their heart and use that as fuel for their writing.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This isn't a bad book, just not for fiction writers. The exercises are helpful to any kind of writer, but are focused more on writers with first-person narrative or memoirs. I ended up skimming through most of it.

[Elizabeth Houseman · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

What an incredible piece of writing. I frequently read books targeted towards writers, but this one was something else. Most of these "On writing" guides will try to tell you how to live your life or shove specific comma styles down your throat. Writing from the Heart was different though, and quite frankly, it was fantastic.

If you're looking for an in-depth contemplation of the artist's heart, read this book. If you're struggling to open up and be true in your writing, read this book. And if you're in need of encouragement and inspiration, read this book.

I'll likely be buying and returning to this over the years. It was an easy, enjoyable read that challenged me as a writer and a person. I absolutely recommend it to writers and to artists in general.

[Jan Chapman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nancy is a muse. A nurturer. A brilliant, funny, compassionate writer who wants everyone to find their way to healing through writing. She believes in this power. You will too. I can't wait for her new book, Memoir as Medicine...out this month.

[Owl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It presented unique writing exercises that I hadn't see before. Aronie doesn't play around with character sheets and plot development. This book is about translating emotion onto the page. I can't wait to go back and complete all the prompts.

[Kara Johnstad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I laughed out loud and decided to commit myself to my own quirky, zany, and free-flow writing practice. Thank you, Nancy. I look forward to interviewing you soon on Voice Rising.

[Dorothy Mahoney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pep talk with generic exercises. Much about self-doubt, the inner critic, process not product. and who you really are. 'Remember it's a leap, not a schlep.'

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book that encourages you to write. Many chapters end with writing prompts or exercises that help you start up your writing. Whether you're a writing beginner or a writer that used to write several times and then just stopped (like me, out of fear) you will thoroughly enjoy this book. It's a book of encouragement and support.

If you are a writer (even if you've stopped) then write again with the perfect nudge that this book gives.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Giving advice on writing is a tricky thing. Taking it is even trickier! This particular treatise did in the end offer some good advice and exercises to tap "the power of your inner voice" but I thought the author spent too much time in the early part of the book writing about living authentically. Perhaps that would be good preparation for some, but for me it just resounded like countless self help/memoir books I've already read. But, briefly, here are some of the exercises that did resonate with me:
*Which story in your life do you want to feel on a new level? Which story keeps resurfacing for years and wants to be written? Write the first page and leave it...
*Write about something that happened to you that you told someone about but have never written down.
*Write about a transition you have completed or are in the middle of.

[Jo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was highly anticipated reading but sadly disappointing. It was rather like ordering a hearty 6 grain piece of toast slathered with butter and homemade strawberry jam and getting a piece of 'wonder bread' white with margerine and out of date jam from the back of the fridge. Subtitle: Tapping the power of your inner voice - I think my inner voice shut down out of protest.(It has taken me 6 weeks to review this book and prepare to move on) Let's just leave it that it is a very difficult task to treat objectively something as individual as someones personal writing style and to help someone fine tune their voice is a herculean task, maybe best left to the gods themselves.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some really good exercises to start writing. I am excited to try them all out. I found as I was reading the book that a lot of it not only dealt with writing from the heart, but also about other areas of life. The book spoke to me about some of my spiritual beliefs as well, without being a preachy religious book. Good read.

[Elizabeth Thorpe]

Unless you're reading all the (used) books you can find about writing and teaching writing, I wouldn't bother with this book. It's fine, but others do the same thing better.

[Mr.]

TWO COPIES

[Melanie]

totally loved this book, but it's not for the faint hearted. Serious inner work. Makes me excited about my writing!