Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write

Brenda Ueland’s, If You Want to Write, is one of my favorite books on writing. I first read this book as part of my Rhetoric course at Westmont College. If you like to write, or if you’re someone who would like to like to write, I highly recommend this book. I don’t know of a better book for stimulating an excitement for writing, cultivating enjoyment in the process of writing, and teaching the importance of writing with exacting truthfulness.

Here are a few of my favorite Ueland quotes:

For when you write, if it is to be any good at all, you must feel free–free and not anxious.

The only way to become a better writer is to become a better person.

My little brother wrote a composition when he was twelve and almost every third sentence was: “But alas, to no avail!” That is the sort of thing that everybody does for many years. That is because they have been taught that writing is something special and not just talking on paper.

The secret of being interesting is to move along as fast as the mind of the reader (or listener) can take in. Both must march along in the same tempo. That is why it is good to read your writing aloud to yourself. As soon as your voice drags, cross that part out.

And my favorite chapter title is the title of chapter 7:

Be careless, reckless! Be a lion, be a pirate, when you write.