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- Writers Resources - |
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Writing in Flow |
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 Writing in Flow: Keys to Enhanced Creativity bySusan K. Perry, PhD and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Writer's Digest Books 272 pages, 1999 ISBN 0898799295 Reviewed by Wesley Sharpe, Ed.D If writing feels like a sentence to hard time, then Writing in Flow may be just the book you are looking for. When you achieve flow, stress, writers block, time and surroundings melt away. To write in flow is to delight in creative writing, explains author Susan K. Perry. Although Writing in Flow is based on Perry's doctoral studies, this book is far from a dry, academic explanation of her research. Perry describes her findings in interesting and lively prose. To help readers understand flow, she combines research results with anecdotes, question and answer sidebars, and chapters that help readers Think Like a Writer, Loosen Up, and Focus In. Writing in Flow is packed with how-to information to help beginning and advanced authors expand their creativity. To illustrate flow, Perry includes quotes from her in-depth interviews with more than 75 bestselling and award winning poets, novelists and short story writers. Gleaned from this impressive list of authors is the way they achieve flow in their writing. Still, writers who haven't encountered flow are in good company. The highly skilled authors Perry interviewed express divergent opinions about the process. "My job is to make it flow for the reader, and that is a very deliberate, very slow, unfolding process," said one interviewee. Others held opinions ranging from "I never experience flow," to "the process is too personal to discuss." Writing in Flow is not a way to avoid the sweat of writing and revising. Flow may get you started, but writers will continue to struggle over the basics. Rewriting, editing, and reviewing editorial guidelines can't be avoided unless your only reward is writing for writing’s sake. Even if flow remains foreign to you, there is enough information in this unique work to make it worth the purchase price. The book is full of ways to improve your writing. Chapter notes and references are a bonus for writers interested in reviewing the research on creativity. And several pages are devoted to the biographies of each interviewee's accomplishments. Added to your professional library, it is a book you may refer to again and again. Whether or not you write in flow, Susan K. Perry seems to have the last word about the joy of creative writing. "If you find you're not having fun with what you're writing," she says, "don't say this isn't fun but rather ask yourself how can I make it fun." |
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