Write Mind: 299 Things Writers Should Never Say to Themselves (and What They Should Say Instead)

In his latest how-to, psychotherapist and writing coach Eric Maisel (Deep Writing, The Creativity Book) offers encouraging advice and plenty of snappy admonishments to writers caught in the quagmire of writer's block or the quicksand of self-doubt. There's a right way and a wrong way to think about the creative process, Maisel says, and Write Mind: 299 Things Writers Should Never Say to Themselves is designed to help writers firmly align themselves with the former. After a brief introduction, Maisel plunges into his numbered lessons: in #111, for example, the wrong mind whines, ""I have no chance,"" while the right mind says, ""I still have hope."" All of his counsel sounds like what writers have been telling themselves all along, but Maisel hopes that hearing it from him will finally make it stick. ( Feb. 18)