Writing from the Body: For writers, artists and dreamers who long to free their voice

by Ceci Miller-Kritsberg, John Lee

Overview

A book about spirit, creativity, and the inner life of the writer

Certain writing books go beyond questions of craft and art to explore the deepest sources of the creative impulse. Writing from the Body is not a "head book"; it is a heart book, a shoulder book, a hand book, a back book, and a soul book that liberates writers from the shackles of self-consciousness and doubt.

Developed from John Lee's popular workshops that have helped thousands of writers, this book offers meditative techniques, physical exercises, and candid counseling—all designed to combat the fears, self-imposed standards, and suppressed feelings that block creative potential. Inspirational qutoes from poems and prose develop John Lee's central message: in order to write from the truth of our total experience, we most return to our bodies.

As Lee notes, "The call to write is a call that's received in the body first. If we are to answer this call, we have to feel every part of our lives. In this book you'll learn the grammar of the gut, the syntax of the sinews, the launage of the legs. For everyone who is tired of living life in the little closet between the ears, get ready."

Any writer, artist, teacher, or psychologist interested in the creative process will find this book invaluable, a lasting source of hope and power.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312115364
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/15/1994
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.37(d)

About the Author

John Lee teacher Writing for Body workshops throughout the U.S. and Canada. He has taught literature at the University of Alabama, University of Texas, and Austin College before turning to lecturing, writing, and training therapists and the general public in emotional release techniques that he developed. He is the author of several books, including Facing the Fire, At My Father's Wedding, and The Flying Boy. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Ceci Miller-Kritbserg, a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, lives in Olympia, Washington.

Editorial Reviews

Much of this book is based on counselor Lee's workshop of the same name. It promotes his Zen-like approach to writing, using exercises and meditation to free the inner voice from inhibitions and seek out one's truths. Targeting those with writer's block, Lee argues that the call to write is felt first in the body, and his exercises seek to find that call. With chapter titles such as "Loving the Inner Artist," he aims to build the writer's self-esteem. This work is more about writing as therapy than about writing technique, and it is written with a level of zeal more often found in self-help books. Though Lee's counseling insight seems genuine, the content is thin; there may have been a breakdown in translating the workshop into a book. Still, this title might cure writer's block, and it's cheaper than a therapist. It could find a home in large writing collections.-Robert C. Moore, DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Co. Information Svcs., N. Billerica, Mass.

Library Journal