The Writer's Workout: 366 Tips, Tasks, & Techniques From Your Writing Career Coach [Paperback]

I took a workshop from Christina at Willamette Writer's Conference. In one exercise, she gave us a worksheet and asked us to take stock of our accomplishments. She proceeded to read through a long list of possible things we'd already achieved, asking us to jot down the ones that applied to us. It was painful. Most of us sat there staring, waiting for even a single thing to put in any of our columns. Then Christina turned things around on us. Think you're not empowered on your writing path? Start developing these competencies. Start small. Build your career. This is what I love about Christina. The Writer's Workout provides a full year of tough-love advice. This is not one of those namby-pamby inspirational books that finds new ways to say, "don't give up" on every page. This is the real thing. If you buy this book and follow Christina's advice, you will see a visible difference in your writing career. She doesn't tell you what you want to hear. She tells you what you need to hear. I can't recommend this book enough.

After reading Writer Mama, I took two classes with Christina and started getting articles published. Christina manages to make every step that's scary about writing seem absolutely doable. She's got plenty of tips about platform-building and self-promotion, but she reminds readers constantly of what's most important: "actual writers actually write." I've been delaying writing a review because I wanted to finish the entire book first. The trouble is, it's hard to stick with it, because after reading a tip or two I always feel compelled to set aside the book and go write!

Finding and sustaining a solid writing rhythm can be challenging for any writer, new or experienced. Christina Katz's latest book, The Writer's Workout, provides inspiration along with practical strategies for generating ideas, mining your own past work, and staying focused on the bottom line. As a student of Christina's, I'm not at all surprised that the tone of this book is wise, kind and productive. This book is a daily dose of Christina Katz's best advice for writers, although you'll likely want to read more than one section per day.

The book is divided into sections corresponding to the seasons of the year, and writers should appreciate Christina's awareness of the cyclical nature of creating, writing and selling one's words. Because every writer goes through these stages time and again, the writer's workout -- like any good muscle-building regimen -- is a skill-building tool to use over and over again. I find myself turning to it when I need a jolt of inspiration, a compassionate colleague, or a swift kick in the pants. Christina is always ready with whichever kind of coaching I most need.

I found my expectations of the creative and publishing process changed (for the better) as a result of reading this book. For instance, Christina explains writers should expect to write 10 drafts. Sometimes I surely write more than 10, sometimes I surely need fewer. Either way, it helps to start the process with the expectation that there will be many opportunities for revision and improvement along the way. I was also reminded of the importance of putting pen to paper -- or fingers to keys. Christina cautions against spending too much time on reading and quasi-conversation and not enough time in the trenches. "Deep thoughts come from deep processes," she reminds. Mucking around in our own thoughts and ideas, putting them on the page, confronting them, criticizing, rearranging. That is the deep process that yields strong written work. And it is, Christina reminds us, intensely gratifying.

Within each section, writers will find tips, tools and techniques for each area of their writing career, including platform development. This book is broad in its treatment of the writing life, covering queries, idea-generation, drafting, interviews, relationships with editors, and the writer's dynamic. It is not intended to teach writers how to do these tasks in nitty-gritty detail, Katz's other books provide targeted teaching on many topics. This book encourages the reader to attend to all areas of their writing career without losing sight of the the writing itself.

Invest in this book. You'll read it more than once.

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