I don’t know about you but I am a shy writer. Despite my apparent gregarious nature online – in real life, I’m the one sitting in the corner sipping a glass of wine while everybody else is working the room.
I’ve always been shy and since childhood, have been chastised for it in one way or another. Which of course, only succeeded in causing me to burrow deeper into my internal world.
Though through lots of effort, some happy accidents, and being in the right place at the right time, I’ve managed to make a living as a writer and even published a novel.
For any shy writer, the idea of self-promotion, marketing, getting the word out or sometimes just asking someone to read our work, makes us cringe and is the source of many a nightmare that sends us into convulsions of trembles.
Good news, there is a book for us – the shy writers of the world
Speaking of happy accidents – I had the opportunity to read a book called, The Shy Writer Reborn, by C. Hope Clark.
Many of you may be familiar with Hope through her Funds for Writers newsletter, her blog, or her new Carolina Slade Mystery series. I have been a fan of this cheerful and tireless writer for many years and often it has been her cheerful and practical advice that has kept me going during times when I doubted my own writing abilities.
What I was surprised to learn was that Hope too, is a shy writer and in reading her book I discovered how she managed to overcome her shyness and succeed as a writer, while never compromising her own integrity and true self.
Here is the review:
Hope Clark’s The Shy Writer Reborn is funny, charming, and real. As writers, we read an awful lot of books on what we should do, how we should approach our careers, and the best way to promote our businesses and books. However, I’ve personally found many of these books to be a disappointment – lacking in real, practical information that can be used to achieve my writing goals.
Clark’s book is jam-packed with useful, practical tips and exercises that any writer could use to further their career. Through the use of personal experience and anecdotes, Hope seems to cover every possible situation a writer could find herself (or hope to find herself) in and how to handle it.
She covers social media, writer’s conferences, public speaking, marketing and promotion and everything in between. I can honestly say that I could use this one book alone as a guide to further my career as a writer beyond what I thought was even possible.
But more than anything, what stands out about this book for me is that Hope has a true and abiding empathy for other writers and helping other writers is a profound mission for her.
Hope’s own words serves as the best description of her own driving force as a writer:
“That force to become better and dig down deep to find the tools and power to do it with, shows in a person and his product.”
If you’re a shy writer, or any kind of writer who wants practical guidance on how to achieve your goals as a professional, this book should be tops on your list.
My thoughts beyond the review
One of the interesting things that happened as I read Hope’s book was that out of nowhere I would have ideas. Not even about the topic I was currently reading in the book, but things to do with the current novel I’m working on, how I might change the focus of my freelance business, shifting the theme of my blog. Everything and anything. Maybe it was just because the book is just that damn good or maybe because it’s the old, if she can do it, than so can I, reaction. But in the end it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that a shy writer can succeed as well as an un-shy writer – and using C. Hope Clark’s The Shy Writer Reborn, as a guidepost, you will probably increase your chance of success a hundred fold.
Highly recommend this book. Check it out.
Writer Chick
Copyright 2013
Anita Rodgers Mystery Writer 