If You Want to Write: a Book About Art, Independence and Spirit

"The best book ever written about how to write."-Carl Sandburg Brenda Ueland has inspired thousands to take pen to paper through her classic book, If You Want to Write. She has moved countless to become more artistic, optimistic, and charged with possibility. Ueland's charismatic personality and encouragement that "everybody is talented, original and has something important to say," have made her a favorite among fans ranging from creative writing students to computer programmers. For most, the hardest part of writing is overcoming the mountain of self-denial that weighs upon the spirit, always threatening to extinguish those first small embers of ambition. Ueland devotes most of If You Want to Write to matters of the writer's heart. "An inspirational tract aimed at all those who would write but are prevented from so doing by shyness, fear or humility . . . I was with [Ueland] right up to the end and wanted to shout, 'Amen.'"-Andrei Codrescu, NPR