The Mindful Writer by Dinty W. Moore: A Review (and a tantrum)

Fiona writes: I'm usually wary about accepting books for review because:

a) I don't like getting something for free and then feeling I ought to like it and,

b) I'm rubbish at writing reviews.

And now I have a confession to make.

I just spent an hour writing a review of this book. I described how I'd discovered Dinty's funny, wise voice through listening to him read 'The Accidental Buddhist'. I said some clever things about the format of the book and the Buddhist underpinnings. I was quite pleased with myself.

I wrote to Dinty and told him the review was finished, and asked when I should post it.

And then I looked back at my tabs and the blogger one had disappeared into thin air. The words, for some unknown reason, hadn't auto-saved. The whole thing was lost. I had a tantrum. I complained to Kaspa that I hated writing reviews and that I couldn't do it again. I cried a little bit.


Dinty would understand. He quotes Pema Chodron in the book: "To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest." He doesn't pretend that it isn't difficult to be a writer, or to be a person. He doesn't pretend that publication or success solves all our problems.

He also reminds us of the joys of being a writer, and of being alive. There is comfort in this book, for writers, and for people who have lost an hour's worth of work and cannot bear to go back to the beginning and start again. He shows us what Ezra Bayda said. "Your difficulties are not obstacles on the path, they are the path." He reminds us to write what we need to write, not what we think others want to hear. He tells us that we will fail to be perfect, but that we should DANCE anyway.

Maybe what I wrote the first time was a better review of the book. But I think what I've written this time is more true. 'The Mindful Writer' will help you to keep faith in writing, to keep laying down word after word when it feels impossible.

Other more illustrious people have written reviews about the book here. You can read an excerpt here. Now go buy it! Thank you, technical-glitch-which-meant-I-had-to-write-this-again. Thank you, Dinty.