Still Writing

by Dani Shapiro

[celinenyx]

There is a lot of good in here, and Shapiro's personal style is admiring. Still Writing is not so much a book on how to write, but what it's like to write for a living. Writing is not easy and often requires courage and stamina, yet is also beautiful and fragile and joyful.

The downside to this book is that is was repetitive in its imagery. I got rather tired of the mention of Shapiro's chaise longe and her namedropping. I felt like deep down, there is a bit of classism running through this book, like how she often refers to "selling fish" as a non-creative, stable career. (Fisheries are struggling, dedicated fish shops are having a hard time competing with chain supermarkets)

For Shapiro writing is suffering, a ripping open of the soul - and here we just fundamentally differ. I write for the hopeful, joyous parts of myself. I write from a place of pleasure, not one of pain.

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Trigger warnings: death of parents, severe illness, ill newborn.