By Jo Ann Holbrook
Part II Western Kentucky Book Expo in Sturgis, Ken.
I left you last with the knowledge that a smile and a hug from a stranger calmed a severe case of nerves. I really was supposed to sign books with 100 authors, and all it took to loosen me up a bit was something unexpected.
I also didn’t expect to get excited about a book on writing in a room filled with every good subject – fiction and non-fiction – that I’d seen gathered in front of so many authors. In my life!
But I did.
And, this happened because I accepted a key from author Robert Yehling. One that opens a gateway into a writing journey that I never knew existed: Yehling’s key is the first book in a “Writes of Life” Using Personal Experiences in Everything You Write series published this year by Koboca Publishing in Tampa Florida.
Robert teaches writing workshops throughout the United States, and “offers three decades of experience as a fiction and non-fiction author, poet, lyricist, magazine and newspaper journalist and editor.” His book gives inspiration and guidance into unlocking the magic of writing. This book is exciting to any writer – novice or seasoned.
From the first page of Writes of Life – the introduction – I knew the gateway enters paths I want to go. Even though I have written since the age of eight – whether it be letters for neighbors, poems for friends, such as one who counted change from a jar to pay for her first horse, or simply love letters to those special - I knew I wanted to write. Desire isn’t enough to be a good writer. But learning how to jumpstart new and creative articles and define it and give it life through personal experience is a good start.
What Writes of Life offers in 95 pages and 10 chapters is one adventure after another, paying attention to the way we perceive every moment, taste every morsel and feel every breeze; It covers our dream process turning it too into creative moments we can access and use in everything we write.
Robert points out different paths in each chapter, routes that I know I have avoided by holding back and sticking to a learned writing trail I thought I had to follow; a rigid writing deadline with little room for change. Yet, he explains how your favorite authors (and names his, and why they are his, throughout the book) are just that because they allowed the process to enter the “Creative Dream” where all things are possible. Top-notch books and a multitude of readers is the result. Every writer can learn this process, and this book shows us how.
While the unofficial mantra of the book is do not hold back and the motto is trust – taking a writer to the point, they trust their ability to connect all the aspects of their writing and their voice. When that happens, a writer begins to draw from all the senses. At the end of each chapter he gives “Concepts; Questions for Self-Reflection; and how to “Apply and Integrate: Build Your Daily Practice.”
He gives us questions to ask and guidance to find the answers.
He explains why talent is not enough, and that writing every day and using everything that “entices, surrounds, consumes, empowers or ignites you” is what you need to write. He gives instructions how to make that possible.
Robert said his book is designed for “busy people.” That it should take 1-2 weeks to complete each chapter. He suggests you take each section as a “separate adventure in both the love of writing and the thrill of discovery.”
I have numerous writing books on my office shelves. The only one I have ever opened time and again is “On Writing Well” the 25th Anniversary Edition by William Zinsser.
I cannot put Writes of Life on a shelf because the interactive information in this book makes me yearn to try each exercise and stretch writing muscles never before used. The book inspires and challenges the entire writer in me.
Even more inspiration is his free writing workshops in Marion, Ken. in the Crittenden County Library. The next class from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday December 5 is “What a Character!” For more information, call the library at 270/965-3354.
Information about this book and all of Robert Yehling’s publications, writing resources, tools, appearances, retreat and workshop schedules are available online at www.wordjourneys.com or by writing Word Journeys, Inc., P.O. Box 133, Tomales CA 94971.