Your Writing Matters: 34 Quick Essays to Get Unstuck and Stay Inspired

Description

What you write can change someone’s life.

In this engaging book of short essays for writers, Keiko O’Leary explores what it means to live life as a writer, offers encouragement and inspiration, and suggests practical techniques to cultivate your writing life. Drawing on her experience as a writer, writing group leader, and workshop instructor, Keiko writes about topics such as:

MOTIVATION: “You deserve to create what’s in you to create.”
CREATIVITY: “Your personal geography is a wellspring of memoir and poetry, and a source of authentic detail for fiction.”
LEGACY: “Through your writing, you help people experience meaning, not only in what you write, but also in their own lives.”

Whether you have years of experience or are just starting out, these essays will support you on your writing journey.

Keiko O’Leary helps writers see the big picture while taking meaningful action today. She is a writer, editor, artist, and speaker. Poet Laureate of Cupertino, California, Keiko teaches workshops and organizes the long-standing writing group Write to the End. She writes short pieces, including poetry, flash fiction, and essays. Connect with Keiko at KeikoOLeary.com.

What readers are saying:

This is a book of welcome—which means that it’s a book of openings, the kind of openings that every writer needs to be inspired and connected—to the world, to themselves, to their fellow writers, to their stories … and to all of the mysteries that touch us as creators.

‘You deserve to create what’s in you to create,’ writes Keiko O’Leary. Yes. This book radiates yes. It radiates awakening.

—GRANT FAULKNER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH

A beautifully written meditation on the writer’s life. The minute I started reading this, I thought, ‘Oh, I’m home!’ This book speaks to the writer in me, not the published person in me. I can’t speak highly enough about this book.

—JULIE A. FAST, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF GETTING IT DONE WHEN YOU’RE DEPRESSED

If you want to write but feel intimidated, or you start writing but get discouraged, or even if you already write a lot but would like some encouragement and celebration—this book is for you.

—C. BORST, AUTHOR OF SOLDIERS IN GREY

Keiko’s book inspired me to start working on a novel that I had been wanting to write.

—ERIN GARCIA, AUTHOR, EDUCATOR