Book Review -Writing from Personal Experience - by Nancy Davidoff Kelton

This book is written by Nancy Davidoff Kelton who is a seasoned writer and also teaches at a university in New York. Aiming at truth, she tells of the necessity of including the revelation in an article. She asks whether you are writing what you think you should, as opposed to what you want to write. For this she offers a "get out of jail free" card. Her light hearted humor dots the pages throughout.

At the end of every chapter in this book, she challenges the reader with exercises like this one for example: She wants you to examine your own feelings. She asks you to think of a place in your life that was special, and where you felt safe and comfortable. Then she wants a description of how you felt there, and what made it so great.

This book is thorough. Within the lines the realistic portrayal of hard work shows up in the first pages. When a writer makes the commitment to write, the hard work isn't such an issue. Why? Because there is no way not to write. Almost an obsession, being an author impels one to go to the keyboard, or pick up the pen or pencil as if on auto pilot.

All writing must come from the heart says Nancy Kelton. She compares writing to acting. If it's not heartfelt, it simply doesn't ring true.

She gives excerpts of her own writing birthed out of introspection and memories. A very touching incident she describes is her relationship with her older sister. She had so wanted to be friends with the big sister that she skipped going into the store with their mother which meant declining a favorite candy treat. She goes on to describe how the older sister pushed her away.

This book includes reference to muses? Voices talk to this author, and guide her with putting words together. From this standpoint, she goes into using word pictures to establish the tone of the written piece.

Often, the script comes from simple moments such as watching her daughter and father together swimming. She sees that their relationship is better than what she ever had or will have with her father. Yet she revels in their exchanges as an outside viewer.

Advice is included about varied sentence length, being specific, using dialogue, and "don't fizzle out at the ending." The idea about endings is to include the revelation inherent in the experience that the writing describes. This revelation becomes a summary.

An interesting reference in this book is about publishing and edits. Referring to the beginning paragraph of any written work, the beginning is a warm up. But it should also stand up to the quality and pertinence of the entire body of work. Publishing editors often cut out the beginnings as unnecessary drivel.

Because of the introspection and the abundant practical information, "Writing from Personal Experience" would be another great book for a writer to include in a personal library.