Musings from Brian J. Noggle

Book Review: The Pocket Muse: Ideas and Inspirations for Writing by Monica Wood (2002)

I bought this book as part of a package for signing up with the Writers Digest Book Club. As part of the package, I paid something like a dollar for it plus shipping and handling, and undoubtedly it was the last book in the required allotment of four or five to get the free Writer's Market that year. To make a short story long, I don't normally seek out this sort of book, but I got it, and I read it.

Essentially, it's a little collage of writing ideas, some microessays about writing, and a lot of photographs. The style's such that you can pick it up, flip it open, and have something to write or some lesson about writing. Numerous single-sentence mandates dictate that you should write about a particular topic or situation; other pages contain a single, often vertical, "horiscope message" that could serve as a plot. So there you have it.

The author embraces the writer lifestyle, which involves teaching college classes, going on writers' retreats, and "getting published" along with all the touchy-feely, grok-the-word crepe that festoons the lives of the lifestyle's participants. Personally, I'm not all into that--particularly the last part, apparently--so I could do without it. Still, it's an interesting little book, a quick enough read (since it's probably under 10,000 words all told in its unnumbered pages), and maybe something from it has stuck in my mind and has been encysted into a pearl of a story or essay for the future.

At worst, it's book number 41 for me on the year and will add a small element of color to my trophy bookshelves.

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:37 PM