I picked up Writing to Save Your Life (Hazledon, 2001) for a couple of different reasons. First, when I was in high school, I really felt that writing played a tremendous part in helping me to "get through" adolescence. It's one of the reasons I wanted to teach English, because I knew the power of words first-hand and I longed to help other teenagers transition more smoothly into adulthood by writing down their emotions rather than turning to destructive means. So I was curious about this book.
The second reason I picked it up was that I was hoping it would be a good resource to use in my composition classes. I did find two paragraphs or so that would be useful toward the beginning of Comp 101, but that was about it. Mostly what I found, instead, was an empathetic author reaching out to adults that feel timid telling their own stories and encouraging them to do it anyway, even if no one else reads what has been scrawled across the page. If you are looking for this kind of encouragement, Weldon provides a safe and comfortable atmosphere for beginning writers. If you are looking for more concentrated writing tips, however, I wouldn't recommend this book as a starting place. (William Zinsser's books, however, are packed full of solid writing advice...but I'll save that for another post.)
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