Writing Towards Wisdom: The Writer As Shaman

This is an extraordinary work. I am brutal with books, physically. I read them while walking /running on the treadmill, so I sweat on them. But only the most riveting books keep my attention during my workout. I may literally bring 5 books and the NY Times to read during a 40 minute workout. But only one gets read. This book was sweat on a LOT. I think I worked out a bit more often while in the process of reading it. I wish it had been longer. The other thing I do is mark books up. I put one line or star next to an idea I like, two next to a really good idea and three next to one I'd like to re-read and even type into my quotation database. This poor book has been sweat on and marked up more than most I've read in the last years, getting sweat and three line/star rankings comparable with McKee, Seger and Bonnet. But this one is different. While the other books on writing have been about structure and story elements, this book is more about the soul of writing. And we need both. Structure provides the bones upon which we add the flesh which we dig up from our souls.Sweet differentiates between stories which are written from the soul versus genre-escapist stuff. Like Carol Bly (Beyond the Writing Workshop) he says you need to get out of your self when writing so you can tap your deepest aspects of your soul. He says, "Shamans are those who dare to confront the invisible and hidden world of their own psyches. By way of this inner adventure they struggle towards an understanding and therefore an acceptance of the contradictory needs and fears that split all persons. Healing or an increased accord is the attempt's reward; directly for the shaman who has labored, indirectly for those who identify with the work that results from this labor. ..... The writer, when functioning as a shaman, pursues both societal and personal fidelity. ..... As a messenger of necessary yet disturbing information, the shaman is often dismissed as an irritant or even scapegoated, that is to say, sacrificed or blamed for the mistakes and crimes of others."Burdette Sweet helps you go deep. to the truth, the hard to reach places where the best dimensions of story live. This short book is a winner.