Product Description

Fitzgerald locked himself in his attic until The Great Gatsby was finished. Hemingway took a more casual approach, writing along the banks of the Seine River. Hawthorne found inspiration while working and living on Brook Farm.

Three great writers chose three different methods of writing-each one uniquely suited to the quirks and qualities of the individual artist.

Finding your own method-one that makes writing easier, more enjoyable and more productive-can be a challenge. But doing so can revolutionize the writing experience and take your work to a whole new level.

The key to great writing is not what you are writing, but how you are writing. In The Write Type, psychologist and novelist Karen Peterson shows you how to identify exactly what kind of writer you are, determine your unique preferences and tendencies, and then use them to create a personalized writing system that gets results.

Why wait? Discover your "write" type and start producing the best, most creative work of your life!

Praise for Write.:
"As well researched and helpful a book on writing as I've ever read."-Kurt Vonnegut

"A real writing accelerator and activator. Excuse me, I need to go write now."-SARK

Praise for The Write Type: "Another excellent book about writing by Dr. Karen Peterson that . . . analyzes the very important psychological foundations and moods that ultimately lead either to avoiding the writing or to getting the writing done."-Dr. Robert Thayer, professor of psychology at California State University, Long Beach, and author of Calm Energy

"Once again, psychologist Peterson has delivered the goods to those of us struggling to write: a down-to-earth blend of comfort, encouragement, and practical advice."
-Les Standiford, Ph.D., director of the Creative Writing Program at Florida International University and author of Last Train to Paradise

"In The Write Type, Peterson details the means for managing one's writing life with ever more precise and subtle practices."
-Gerald Costanzo, poet, professor of English, director of Carnegie Mellon University Press, author of In the Aviary, and coeditor of American Poetry: The Next Generation

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #904446 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

About the Author
Karen E. Peterson, Ph.D., is a psychologist, novelist, and public speaker with extensive media experience. She is a former university writing instructor with an M.A. in English. The recipient of several university literary awards, Dr. Peterson has conducted research on writer's block and procrastination. She lives in Phoenix.

Customer Reviews

For any writer who can't seem to find the right groove or mood to really start cooking
Committed or Conflicted? Organized or Chaotic? Lunch Hour or Log Cabin? What kind of writer is one, really? "The Write Type: Discover Your True Writer's Identity and Create a Customized Writing Plan" is a guide to help writers identify with who they are as a writer by going over preferred writing conditions such as mood, organization, deadlines, solitude, order, and other aspects of ones writing that may not be obvious to everyone. "The Write Type: Discover Your True Writer's Identity and Create a Customized Writing Plan" is highly recommended for any writer who can't seem to find the right groove or mood to really start cooking, and for community library shelves dedicated to writers. Also highly recommended from Adams Media in the subject, "Time to Write: No excuses. No distractions. No more blank pages" (9781598694383, $12.95) by Kelly L. Stone.

A dialogue between your right brain and your left brain? Not by switching a pen from one hand to the other.
The subtitle of this book is 'discover your true writer's identity and create a customized writing plan'.

To do this, you need to do exercises: answer questions writing first with your dominant hand then with your non-dominant hand. They are the same questions. And with me they generated the same answers, phrased differently, sometimes a bit stronger with the one then the other.
There were also questions where you had to check off items which applied to you, again first with your dominant hand then with your non-dominant hand. I'm sure, this did not switch on the other part of my brain.
Then there are the 'internal dialogues' where your dominant hand states the problem, your non-dominant hand writes what is needed or what has caused it, and your dominant hand gives the solution. I drew a blank there.
I do think it could work in a way. I know the subconscious can provide answers and/or solutions, when consciously thinking you seem to have run out of options. But for me, it needs a bit more than just switching writing hands.
After three chapters, I got bored with the exercises and just read on.

There are some good tips in this book, and many of the subjects were food for thought, where, before, the decisions had been made subconsciously.
But this didn't make the book a 'keeper' for me.

Informative and encoumpassing everything a writer struggles with
This is an excellent read, one of the best "on writing" books I encountered. It touches every bit of the internal debate a would-be author struggles with, such as finding the right time to write, should I publish, is writing in cafes versus a private room better for me, am I allowed (yes, much inner psychology there) to deal with more than one writing project at a time? with multiple exercises (I particularly loved the RET one) and true-life stories, this book helped me to achieve what so many others could not - finding what truly suites me as a writer, while breaking some of the "mainstream" myths for best writing out there. Kudos!