Book Review: About Writing
Gareth L. Powell’s revised and expanded edition of his fantastic book of encouragement for writers and budding authors.
Well, here’s a first for the blog: a review of a non-fiction book! I recently read the new expanded edition of Gareth L. Powell’s About Writing. As a writer myself, I’m keen to learn more about the craft and improve. One great way to do this is simply to write (this is, in fact, the most important way), another is to take advice from established writers. For new (and not so new) writers, there’s so much rich knowledge to be gleaned from those who have been immersed in the industry for a long time. Gareth’s About Writing is not so much a “how-to” of writing; this is no technical guide, but it is fascinating and very motivational with matter-of-fact advice on navigating the other aspects of being a writer, such as the process, beating writer’s block, and insights into publishing.
As a practical example, I’ve been struggling a bit with finding the motivation to continue where I last left off writing in my WIP. Every time I went back to the document after having dealt with everything else that the day had thrown at me, I just stared at it. Stared for a few minutes, the cogs and gears in my mind grinding themselves to a halt. Then, I would close the document and do something brainless and unproductive like scrolling through TikTok or watching YouTube. Sometimes this is fine, but when it goes on for too long, there’s a problem. And it had gone on for too long. In About Writing, Gareth’s advice was to train yourself into the habit of thinking throughout the day about what you need to write next, so that when you finally open your WIP, you know what you need to do and don’t waste your writing time trying to think about it when your energy might be low. In short: I tried it, and it worked. I put down nearly a thousand words in my next session, which is at the upper end of what I would normally write in a day.
This isn’t the only piece of advice in the book, of course, but just one example of where it’s helped me recently.
There’s a lot packed into About Writing, and it’s a great kick up the backside, written in a way which feels like Gareth is really rooting for you. This tracks well, because Gareth does so much to encourage and champion both aspiring and established authors, whether trad-published or indie. I get the feeling I’ll definitely be revisiting sections in the book when I need a bit of a pep-talk!
If you’re struggling with your writing, whether that’s desperately trying to see the wood for the trees, feeling overwhelmed, demotivated or lost, give About Writing a go.
