The Writing Life -- by Annie Dillard

The Writing Life –by Annie Dillard

Memoir

111 pages

footnotes/endnotes: No

illustration: No

suitable for eReaders: Yes

You will probably find this listed, somewhere, as a How To Write book. It is. And, it isn't. It is a memoir of how Annie Dillard writes, how she goes into bare bones existence in order to force the words, the sentences, the pages, from her brain to her fingers to the page. She doesn't tell us how to write a book, she shows us how she writes a book.

She claims to abhor the process of writing, and probably does (who is Rainy Day to question that?). But, does she have a choice? Really? Writing is something those who do, must do. It is hard, lonely work. At the end of a day of writing one's wrists hurt, their back hurts, their fingers are cramped, and yet, the next day, a writer sits down and starts the process all over again.

Annie Dillard is a writer, and Rainy Day could easily become envious of Ms. Dillard's ability to find and string the right words into the perfect ribbon of sentence and then weave those ribbons into story. Fortunately, Rainy Day is not the envious sort, and understands the agony Ms. Dillard goes through to create her perfect art.

If you are looking for a book on how one person writes, this book is perfect. It may just be the book to chase you into another art form, and that is fine. If you want a list of directions – First, get paper, then get pen, then...this book is not for you. It is about writing, and the life of one writer. Inspiration at it's best.