This is a book about writing by novelist Anne Lamott, although it can double as an irony-laced self-help book. You should read it because she is a hilariously funny, serious practicing Christian who offers some seriously practical advice about putting words on paper. 

Lamott has taught writing at universities and in this book she gives useful technical counsel to writers at every stage of development. Her main point is that you have to learn to trust your intuition. She provides marvelous guidance on how to do this: it reminds me of Doctrine and Covenants 8 in its blend of hardheaded wisdom and spiritual insight. What Lamott calls "intuition", we call "revelation." 

This is her take on why we should continue to write, even if we are not "successful" (i.e., published:)

There are a lot of us, some published, some not, who think the literary life is the lovliest one possible, this life of reading and writing and corresponding. We think this life is nearly ideal. It is intellectually quickening. It is spiritually invigorating. One can find in writing a perfect focus for life. It offers challenge and delight and agony and committment. As a writer, one will have over the years many experiences that will stimulate and nourish the spirit. These will be quiet and deep inside, however, unaccompanied by thunder or tremulous angels. My friend Tom said he has longed for spiritual experiences all his life . . . he could tell he'd had a genuine experience when he'd feel a sense of liberation afterward, in his chest, his lungs, his soul. This feeling is something my students report, this feeling of liberation, that, ironically, discipline brings. (pp.232-233)

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               R.W. Rasband                    hsu481@freenet.mb.ca
               Heber City, UT       rrasband@mail.coin.missouri.edu
                       Lisa Kennedy Montgomery forever!
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