If You Want To Write By Ueland Summary

Brenda Ueland, known for her book "If You Want to Write," in this book she shares her thoughts as an advocate for freedom, living in the moment and self expression. The central tenets being that everyone has talent, has something important to say and everyone is original; because each person is unique. Thus if words come from the source then the writing will be just fine.

Ueland asserts that writing is a natural process and a pleasant experience. Creativity is expression, which is something that's instinctual and automatic. Hence, people are naturally creative. For instance, an interesting thing that happens when someone does creative work, the person gains a calm ferocity, and intensity of focus, energy comes from the person. Creativity

Writing should come from inside, not through external pressure. Dive into the soul, look and write about when you sense, thoughts and feelings. Speak from the heart. Freedom is important for creativity, you must be free to express your inner self, not what others would like of you. Creativity doesn't' come from rules, don't force them on others, don't follow them.

Ueland reports that we undergo a holocaust of talent, youth everyday get their creative energy destroyed. Writing is an emotional battle, sometimes the worst enemy is that of a friend, maybe a grammar wiz telling you that you're breaking a rule, telling us that we are wrong. They do something creative, they show it to someone they love, hoping they'll approve, of course they'll approve, they worked so hard on it. They get rejected and feel broken. They'll feel like they don't have what it takes. If I can't master proper useage how can I write good prose? For most they won't attempt this again, why would they?

Most of killing of talent comes from so called critics. Ueland attacks those amatur cristics that hole up a good standard and keep people from writing. These that suggest that only the best should write. However, not all critical thoughts are bad, just those that don't carry meaning, for some critical thoughts are an art of their

Maybe they were told their work wasn't very good, or people made fun of teased them. Often it's emotions that hold us back from creative expression, to not be ourselves or to act like others. It's usually out of fear, bound by shame shame, self-torment emanating from a past blunder. In the end, how can we move forward if we're being held back?

Writers do little and expect a lot, Ueland observes, we demand perfection, and compare our work to that of the greats, if it's not on par we're a failure. But this isn't the case, writing is just like any other craft, it takes practice. Speaking of how to improve Ueland encourages the process of thinking of how best to put yourself on paper, not of comparing yourself to others. Urges, you to no practice writing passively, do so with due thought and large emotional investments. Writing is often not practiced like it should be, train like a musician always honing.

Continuing she calls for being in the moment as a method of creativity, it giving voice to feelings and urges of the self. To have the voice come from the heart, to let the "creative impulses" come out. There's a correlation with creativity and living in the present. Cultivate creativity through withdrawal and seclusion, get in touch with yourself to feel the "creative