by James Roy

Created on: June 03, 2007

REVIEW ARE YOU A WRITER? THEN YOU NEED THIS BOOK

'Walking on Alligators - a book of mediations for writers' by Susan Shaughnessy
(Harper & Collins, ISBN 0 06 250758 3)

Susan Shaughnessy has a different name for writer's block. She calls it 'writer's resistance', which does seem to me to have a slightly more accurate feel to it. This curse - which as writers we've all experienced at one time or another - is not so much a complete block to the creative process, but rather a creative desire that is held back by a complex mix of fears, frustrations, distractions, insecurities and lack of encouragement. Hell, if I was going to be honest I'd have to admit that I'm writing this review right now because I've got a book I should be finishing!

In 'Walking on Alligators', Shaughnessy has borrowed a style that I last saw in Christian daily devotional books, way back when I was a good church-going boy. In those books, the author would take a verse from the Bible, elaborate upon it, then sum it up in a short prayer for the day. Shaughnessy has done much the same thing, but for writers, with 200 one-page examinations of quotes by successful people with insight into the creative process, each with its own closing mantra for the day.

An example, from page 37: 'If the power to do hard work is not talent, it is the best possible substitute for it.' (James A. Garfield) Shaughnessy then goes on to discuss what hard work is to a writer, whether in fact hard work can ever replace talent, and what motivating factors might be behind our toil. She closes with this mantra: 'Today, I will answer my inner voice with hard work. I will see how it responds to this proof of my seriousness of purpose.'

In the preface, Shaughnessy recommends that you read no more than one page at a time. I tend to read one a day, and try not to look forward at the next, for fear of diluting the truth of the one I've just read. And the strange and rather spooky thing is that every day, when I open this book at my bookmark, the meditation for that day speaks directly to the heart of the problem I currently face. It's the nearest thing to magic I think I've ever seen.

In the reviews at the front of this remarkable book, one reviewer recommends that it be kept by the keyboard. Another suggests that it should be kept in the place you run to when you wish to hide from your writing. I suggest you buy two copies.

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