Writing the Natural Way: Using Right-Brain Techniques to Release Your Expressive Powers

I am a student of writing books. I've read dozens and am always on the look out for one that will enrich my writing. But I've never read one quite so powerful as "Writing the Natural Way." The author has the uncanny ability to zero in on the very DNA of the writing process and make the process eminently understandable and accessible. She herself is a wonderful writer. The prose is clear and her excerpts of other works are fascinating. Even the quotations that frame pages are inspirational. This clearly is a well thought-out book. I seldom read a book that I rush to pick up the first thing in the morning and have to force myself stop reading it at night. This is such a book. I feel lucky to own it. But it's an intense book though. It's chock full of writing excercies and stirs you to reflection. But if you stick with it, your writing will improve beyond your wildest dreams. My already has. Anyone with a keen interest in the writing process should possess this book.

Here's the scientific way to becoming a writer -- that is, by using right brain techniques to release your expressive powers: clustering, recurrence, revision (meaning re-seeing), image and metaphor, creative tension, trial web and language rhythm. Rico begins by teaching the reader how to release the "inner writer." Her method is one of brainstorming, but she calls it clustering. It's free association designed to call the subconcious into creative action. It works. It's the modern and scientific adaptation of a technique Dorothea Brande wrote about in the 1930s in BECOMING A WRITER.Most writers like to watch their words appear on paper -- or on the computer screen. Then we read them to see what we think. I call it writing from the heart; Rico calls it right brain activity. Whatever you call it, it works, it's useful and learning to use it can change your writing -- for the better -- forever.No serious writer should be without this book, no matter what he/she writes. Don't just read it, do the exercises. They're fun, they'll surprise and enlighten you and whether you're a novice or a pro, they'll make you a better writer.

Is this book any good? Well lemme put it this way. I read it once or twice back in the mid 80s when I was a teenager. Since then I've: (a) remembered the mindmapping technique, (b) used it a countless number of times in research projects, writing ads, writing poems, writing book reports, coming up with new ideas, finding the connections between seemingly unconnected things, working out the pros and cons of any given proposition, and for practically anything that requires taking a huge amount of information and breaking it down logically. (c) i've also taught the mindmapping technique to dozens of people, including such diverse groups as advertising execs and 5th graders. (d) they've all benefitted enormously. why? because the mindmapping technique serves to BOOST YOUR CREATIVITY AND UNLEASH YOUR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION. so any person who complains that this book is strictly about learning to write poetry is being VERY SMALL-MINDED INDEED! i suggest these people do a mindmap ON MINDMAPS THEMSELVES (!) and see what comes up! A superb book in every way, I give it my highest recommendation. AN INSTRUCTION BOOK FOR YOUR BRAIN. that's what it's really all about.

This book inspired me to write, and it offered great practical advice with the technique of clustering and writing with my Design mind. Rico helped me to realize that anything I wanted to write was already inside, waiting to be tapped. Using Rico's techniques, I am able to write in ways that continue to astound me. I have used her techniques to write papers as a student in classes, as well as to write on my own. I am now a published writer of fiction and non-fiction, and I continue to use her ideas and inspiration.

I have read alot of books on writing and mind mapping/clustering. This one demonstrates a practical way to use mind maps/clustering to improve the way you write. The best thing about the book is that is really works and is easy to use. I now do all my writing this way. It has made a BIG difference in the content and quality of my writing and thinking.