WRITE SMART, WRITE HAPPY by Cheryl St. John is a fun and informative craft book on the writing life. There are all kinds of info chunks for the starting out writer and there are even a few tidbits for the longtime professional. The obvious emphasis is that writers should attempt to maintain a positive outlook because it impacts one’s writing. This is the crux of the main argument that St. John lays out and maintains over the course of almost 300 pages.
There isn’t much here for an experienced writer, given that after you’ve read a few craft books, they all begin to say the same thing. The benefit with WRITE SMART, WRITE HAPPY is we have a writer who attempts to approach it from a more lay person’s perspective and is sure to break some of the more foundational stigmas that can exist in the writer’s world. Commandments such as “Write every day,” St. John retorts back, “You do NOT need to write every day.” Not every writer works that way and that is okay. The appreciation that some maximums are not universal is always appreciated, especially when every writer’s career is not the same.
WRITE SMART, WRITE HAPPY is the perfect book for a budding writer and helpful to the most experienced writer who needs a shot of positivity.
I received this ARC via NetGalley.
It is set to be released on February 1st, 2018 by Writer’s Digest Books.
Pyles of Books 