The Writer’s Survival Guide Book Review

Hello everyone! I hope that this post finds you doing well. Since starting my family blog in 2008 (and this one in 2009) I have had people tell me from time to time that they enjoy my stories and reading what I write. This has lead me to want to become a better writer, and heck, maybe even try and get published someday. So recently I picked up a book to help that dream, The Writer’s Survival Guide by Rachel Simon, to see what I could learn about writing.

What I liked about this book. I think that becoming a writer and writing something that gets published is a huge dream, but Rachel definitely puts into perspective how hard you need to work to achieve the dream of becoming a writer. I’m glad I read that. If you want to become a better writer, it takes a lot of hard work, commitment and sacrifice. I think it’s important to start a journey knowing what you will need to accomplish your goals, and this, like I said, put those needs into perspective.

I also enjoyed the fact that Rachel takes basically a “how to guide” and makes it personal. Although I know nothing about Rachel, I feel that she does a good job at making this book warm and full of her story. Rachel offers a wide range of advice, such as, organizing your time to be more productive, developing a sense of commitment and discipline, choosing material, getting started, handling criticism, overcoming writer’s block and networking. So if you have tons of questions she does a good job at covering a lot of ground.

Which reminds me, I found her suggestions for finding time to write very useful and have already started applying them to my schedule (with success).

There were some things I didn’t like about the book. I guess with any “how to guide” each reader will run into sections that they don’t find as useful as the next person and so from time to time I found myself skipping sections. But whatever.

Well I hope this helps you. If you’re aspiring to become a better writer, checkout my tips section on this blog. What books have you read about becoming a better writer? Do you have any tips you would like to share?

Enjoy this day,
Matt

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