Becoming a Writer [Paperback]

A reissue of a classic work published in 1934 on writing and the creative process,Becoming a Writerrecaptures the excitement of Dorothea Brande's creative writing classroom of the 1920s. Decades before brain research discovered the role of the right and left brain in all human endeavor, Dorothea Brande was teaching students how to see again, how to hold their minds still, and how to call forth the inner writer.Foreword by John Gardner
In Introduction

1. The Four Difficulties
The Difficulty of Writing at All; The One-Book Author ; The Occasional Writer; The Uneven Writer; The Difficulties Not in Technical Equipment.

2. What Writers are Like
Cultivating a Writer's Temperament; False and Real Artists; The Two Sides of a Writer; Dissociation Not Always Psychopathic; Everyday Examples of Dual Personality; The Slough of Despond

3. The Advantages of Duplicity
The Process of Story Formation; The Born Writer ; Unconscious and Conscious; The Two Persons of the Writer; The Transparent Barrier; Keep Your Own Counsel; Your Best Friend and Severest Critic ; The Right Recreation; Friends and Books; The Arrogant Intellect; The Two Selves Not at War; The First Exercise

4. Interlude: On Taking Advice
Save Your Energy; Imagination Versus Will in Changing Habits; Displacing Old Habits; A Demonstration; The Right Frame of Mind

5. Harnessing the Unconscious
Wordless Daydreams; Toward Effortless Writing; Double Your Output

6. Writing on Schedule
Engaging to Write; A Debt of Honor; Extending the Exercise; Succeed, or Stop Writing

7. The First Survey
Reading Your Work Critically; The Pitfalls of Imitation; Discovering Your Strength; A Footnote for Teachers

8. The Critic at Work on Himself
A Critical Dialogue
Be Specific in Suggestions
Correction After Criticism
The Conditions of Excellence
Dictating a Daily Regime

9. Readings as a Wrló