How Writers Journey to Comfort and Fluency: A Psychological Adventure

by Robert Boice

This book, by a psychologist with two decades of investment in writers, depicts his programs for instilling patience, pacing, constancy, and resilience in writing. He shows how writers proceed to comfort and fluency by detailing strategies, rules, and turning points for a diversity of writers--professional, professorial, and otherwise. The result is a thorough-going discussion of what helps writers and a review of the broad literature that program participants found most helpful.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Psychology, Academic

280 pages, Hardcover

First published August 23, 1994

Reviews

[Elizabeth Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is hard to find and too expensive when you do find it--BUT it presents a curious, psychology-based, doggedly practical perspective on creating a healthy writing life. Wading through the myriad examples Boice gives gets wearisome. I do appreciate that he has approached the struggles of writers as psychological issues and that he gives such practical suggestions. Here are a few glimpses:

Regular involvement in conversations and in information collecting precedes imagination. Neither motivation nor imagination has any good reason to appear out of the blue. … Collecting ideas cultivates the imagination; summarizing and rearranging them loosens the imagination and brings surprises.

Research shows that the most creative, imaginative individuals display unique talents for avoiding premature closure; they put off final decisions about organizing ideas while maintaining high standards for (1) the quality of the materials they collect and for (2) the purpose of collecting them. In other words, they wait.

Good stuff!

[Lorraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is written by a psychology professor who has devoted his career to understanding the psychology of writing and to running a program (like year-long, extensive program) for blocked writers and writers with other problems. How Writers Journey contains everything he's learned over the years about why writers develop writing blocks and how to overcome them; it also contains more general information about how to develop good writing habits that will persist over time.

Parts of the book are repetitious, but on the whole, I'd recommend this for anyone who is struggling with writing. Many of his suggestions are ones I'd not commonly seen in writing manuals which could be really helpful for people who've tried the usual suspects to no avail. Also, I really liked the part where he explains why the whole writer as a misanthrope in the tower does not lead to good writing (even among those writers who style themselves that way; most of them were not genuinely reclusive but rather part of a network of writers with mentors and mentees and peers with whom they maintained contact about their writing).

I got a little bored because this book ended up not being useful for my research, but I'd recommend it for someone looking for writing help that's off the beaten path.

[Missy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly helpful during this past summer of stacked deadlines, both professional and personal. Well worth the time it took to track it down via ILL.

[Brynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great. Debunks many of the myths writers tell themselves and the self defeating practices that arise from these at once self aggrandizing and life destroying narratives.

[Dan Yingst · Rating 5 out of 5]

good advice

[Suukii]

intersting and useful handbook - good basis for workshops, one of my inspirations for the room for writing project. Useful tools and evidence, and rather quaint because it was written prior to widespread use of wordprocessors