MOTIVATE TO CREATE BY NATE HENDLY

This book is a non-fiction directive to motivate writers. The author offers a number of good ideas for writing and tips for finding one’s creativity, but not so much ideas that motivate someone to actually write. For example, the suggestion that novices have the appropriate books is helpful but not motivational. He does have a section called “What This All Has To Do With Motivation,” which seems to pull together these ideas but still lacks the title designation of “motivation.”

I also noted a large number of noun / verb / noun agreement errors (“When an editor turns down a story pitch, it’s very tempting to solicit them for advice,”) and incorrect hyphenation for adjectives (Page 64, for example - Heather Cook, author, horse-trainer and much published freelance writer in Calgary, Alberta. This should read “Heather Cook, author, horse trainer and much-published freelance writer in Calgary, Alberta.) For someone who makes a living selling his work as a writer, I was surprised to see these kinds of errors when he proposes that novices take writing classes, using the analogy about driver’s education.

The structure of the chapters is organized and easy to read. The author uses good personal stories and anecdotes from others as well to make his points. However, his lengthiest section of the book is called “A Word About Working As A Writer,” which goes for six pages under various headings. Most of this is very anti-freelance – reasons not to write.

As an author, I was disappointed not to read something beyond Paul Lima’s theory of hating to be financially devastated if writing were to fail him.

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Reviewed by: Valerie Conrad, BS, BSN
Mind Fog Reviews