When Waterbrook offered to send me a copy of Robert Benson's latest book, "Dancing on the Head of a Pen", I was ecstatic. There is something about reading about writing from someone else's perspective that always intrigues me. This book promised to be a kind of writing memoir aimed at inspiring others to pick up their pens and fill pages of their own. Benson's hope for this book is that it will:
"...help you write one of your own. If you are not sure whether or not you can write a book, this one will not answer the question. You will have to write a book before you will know. I do hope these pages will give you a way to begin to make dark marks on pages of your own." (p. 13)
No matter how much we love it, writing is hard. You can read about those writers who have inspired Benson the most in chapter 8 and in the section at the end titled, "On Gratitude". He knows that getting alone, sticking with it, and believing that the words are important are struggles that all writers share. Benson has faked it (you can read about that in chapter 3), but he has also put the work in and come out on the other side to see his name in print.
He knows what it's like to desire real people to read your work (you can read about this in chapter 5), so he devotes several chapters to the process of sharing your work with others, putting the finishing touches on it, and realizing that you are free to move on to the next one (see chapters 11 and 12).
In short, this is one of my favorite books on writing. I have a feeling it will become one of your favorites too!
Click HERE to order your copy today.
* I was provided with a review copy of this book by Blogging for Books. All thoughts are my own honest opinion.
This sounds like a really interesting book! I've never read anything like it, but I think I might enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like such a good book! I read all sorts of books about writing, but I hadn't heard of this one. I should snag myself a copy sometime!
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