Review: Dancing on the Head of a Pen

I love to learn about the craft of writing from other writers. A well-written story can seem like a bit of alchemy at times, a true mystery-- how do these words come together to evoke these feelings? Seeing a writer break down his chosen method inspires confidence, the feeling that "yeah, I can totally do this," without any accompanying delusions that it'll be easy. In fact, no good writer would ever say that writing is easy and that is a relief to me. 

Source: http://www.examiner.com/review/dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pen-the-practice-of-a-writing-life-by-robert-benson

I am slowly but surely building a collection of books about writing by writers. Though I've never read anything by Robert Benson, I felt drawn to this book, which describes the craft of writing in small snapshots, theme by theme. In the same way that good writing emerges over time, the advice in this book unfolds one by one, each building on the one before it. 
I found it very useful in thinking about creating the conditions in our lives that compel us to make time to write. Though I have an ebook copy, I will buy a hard copy, to annotate and  to place on my bookshelf alongside my other About Writing books. 



{I received a copy of this book for free, for review purposes. This post contains affiliate links. }