If You Want to Write - 2nd Edition by Brenda Ueland (Paperback)

About the Book

While rousing thousands to take up the pen or keyboard, "If You Want to Write" has also inspired countless others to become more artistic, more optimistic, and more charged with possibility. This tenth anniversary edition is an acknowledgement of the power that books have to change lives.

Book Synopsis

But we must try to find our True Conscience, our True Self, the very Center, for this is the only first-rate choice-making center. Here lies all originality, talent, honor, truthfulness, courage and cheerfulness. Here lies the ability to choose the good and the grand, the true and the beautiful.

In her ninety-three remarkable years, Brenda Ueland published six million words. She said she had two rules she followed absolutely: to tell the truth, and not to do anything she didn't want to do. Her integrity shines throughout If You Want to Write, her bestselling classic on the process of writing that has already inspired
thousands to find their own creative center. Carl Sandburg called this book "the best book ever written about how to write." Yet Ueland reminds us that "whenever I say 'writing' in this book, I also mean anything that you love and want to do or make."

From the Back Cover

In her 93 remarkable years, Brenda Ueland published six million words. She said she had two rules she followed absolutely: to tell the truth, and not to do anything she didn't want to do. Her integrity shines throughout If You Want to Write, her best-selling classic on the process of writing that has already inspired thousands to find their own creative center. Carl Sandburg called this book "The best book ever written about how to write". Yet Ueland reminds us that "Whenever I say 'writing' in this book, I also mean anything that you love and want to do or to make". Ueland's writing and her teaching are made compelling by her feisty spirit of independence and joy.

Review Quotes

"I was with [Ueland] right up to the end and wanted to shout, 'Amen.'" --Andrei Codrescu, NPR

"I only have to read a few sentences and I am infected with the desire to follow her." --The Women's Review of Books

About the Author

BRENDA UELAND (1891-1985) spent many years living in New York, where she was part of the Greenwich Village bohemian crowd. She received an international swimming record for over-eighty-year-olds and was knighted by the King of Norway.