“Avoid those pesky cliques,” Pat Spencer, writes. She writes for writers everywhere in my opinion. This book was an engrossing and captivating, truly inspirational read filled with interesting facts, fascinating one-liners, film mentions, and character that will stay with you long after you read the last page. In future, it will serve as a motivation for me. I will keep it beside me, (close by), as a reminder of what to do as a writer, what not to do and what rules to obey and to follow. Pat Spencer is a prolific writer and gifted with the pen. She is ready to advise on the way forward and armed with a wonderful, engaging sense of humour. It is necessary, I find, that writers should read books on writing written by other writers.
Books on writing are hidden gems waiting to play a supporting role in a writer’s life, waiting to be treasured, cherished and discovered and offers an opportunity to serve up something different when you write. Pat Spencer tells us, “Quite naturally, we link taste to food but for a writer taste is much more than a tool to enhance a culinary scene.” Writing is a multidimensional discipline, a life-enhancing, enriching experience, a calling and can be transformative. This book will make you a better writer. It pulled me into Pat Spencer’s literary world. A world of meaningful and authentic use of language, her style and technique, the ebb and flow of context and an “abundance of information” that I as a writer, and others, can find useful in the future. Dr. Spencer Ph.D. writes with intention. I found this richly rewarding. Reading this book made me aware of how complex the English language and writing is. It enriched my life and engaged my senses.
Pat Spencer Ph.D. writes that the overuse of body language perplexes readers and that metaphors bring a freshness to your writing. She is always strategic in her thinking, in her telling, in her showing. This book is of great value to the apprentice writer, the writer just starting out and the more established writer. Think of it as your survival guide in the wilderness, a textbook, a handbook. It is for beginner writers and is easy to read and to understand. Its insight will make you a better writer and improve your writing skills. How a writer thinks and works is oftentimes a mystery but with Dr Spencer’s informative advice and guidance she offers a bird’s eye of view of the nature of the complexities and challenges of a writer’s life. There are tools to be learned, obstacles and rules that must be negotiated and learned. Once a writer, once you get that first book behind you a life of learning, teaching and mentoring others to equip themselves with these specific skills are ahead of you. This book can be read in one sitting and then again to absorb all the telling, tiny details. It’s a great conversation starter, a how-to book, a how to write and how to become a better writer book. Once read, it must be passed on.
The book is a noble endeavour that expresses the views of a writer-on-writing in an educational tone of voice. It doesn’t preach but exposes, and represents in an honest, informative way the writer’s challenges. It is an expression of the personal growth and development of the writer and where it can lead.
The writer has a moral obligation to the universe to use words as a tiger balm, to instruct, to correct, to bedazzle the reader. To break all the rules, in order to rewrite them, revise them, prove them you must first understand them, acknowledge them, and even go as far as to recite them parrot fashion from memory. Symbolism is key and king, taste is an aspect of writing that needs to be taken cognisance of, there’s the golden quality of the reader and writer bonding over metaphors and similes. This book is a reminder that there is much to learn about writing, and that to be a writer of significance it is just as important to do the research, to read, to invest in how to improve your writing handbooks, to follow the steps to achieving your goals and a successful writing life.
What it is not is just another book on writing.
