Book Review: On Being Stuck: Tapping Into the Creative Power of Writer's Block by Laraine Herring

ISBN: 1611802903
Published: May 17th, 2016
Publisher: Shambhala
Received: Goodreads First Reads
Read from April 15th to May 7th, 2017
Synopsis from Goodreads:

What if writer's block became your most precious teacher? An empowering new process for writers who struggle with the seemingly insurmountable middle of a project, from the author of Writing Begins with the Breath. 
Writer's block is not a mysterious force that has aligned with your writing to stop you in your tracks. Writer's block occurs when hope meets fear—when our expectations for a project or ourselves as writers run head first into the fear(s) that are uniquely tied to that hope. Writer's block is not external. It is not part of a vast conspiracy. It is a signal from deep within to pay attention to the writing and to pay attention to what the writing is asking of us as writers. Using deep inquiry, writing, body and breath exercises, and a range of interdisciplinary approaches, On Being Stuck helps writers uncover the gifts hidden within their creative blocks and deepen their relationship not only to their work but to themselves.

Review:

To be honest, this book wasn't for me. While I like to read books on writing, this one was focused around how to motivate yourself to write. You don't get any practical advice beyond motivating words and journal/meditation topics about writer's block.

The author is a proponent of mindfulness and meditation. Each chapter is very short (a few pages at most) and each ends with a task meant to motivate you to write. These tasks are prompts that you can write about in your journal (that the book encourages you to keep) or meditations that you can do. While I think journaling and meditating can both be helpful, I didn't get anything out of the activities in the book.

There are more than thirty chapters, and many of them felt repetitive. They were essentially the same thing said with different words, so the book felt even less worth it as I continued to read.

I would say this book is worth checking out if you want to start keeping a journal and/or meditating on writing (and need help getting over a mental barrier to write) and you need prompts. Other than that, you're not going to get much from this book.

I received this book from Goodreads First Reads in exchange for a review. This did not affect my opinion.