Write Your Heart Out by Rebecca McClanahan

McClanahan, Rebecca. Write Your Heart Out: Exploring and Expressing What Matters to You. Cincinnati, OH: Walking Stick Press, 2001.



Write Your Heart Out differs from many other books on writing because less on the craft and business of writing and more on the life of writing. It covers the journey of being a writer from the inside out.

McClanahan begins the journey with journaling and other private writing that is not meant to be shared. Private writing provides the opportunity for writing without worry of judgment, recording daily events or major life passages and discovering yourself. Writing can be a way to preserve memories, deal with a painful past, find your way and celebrate joys. Private writing doesn’t have to lead to anything else, but it can; even a mundane diary may spark a memory or provide perspective and inspiration for creative works.

The next passage in the journey is letters. Here a writer begins to communicate with others. Letters can be powerful and tangible ways of connecting with others. McClanahan offers advice on how to write various types of letters and what to include. If you’re looking for a way to express your sympathy or love, this chapter can help you get started.

The writer moves on to working with other writers and writing in or about work. Working with other writers can mean collaboration, but in can also be any level of sharing with other writers to help them and receive their help. McClanahan describes several ways you can be part of a community of writers. Unless you’re one of the relative few who make a living writing full time, you’re already a part of a community of work. Your job or profession can be a rich source of material for writing. Use your expertise, or even your failures.

Moving to being a public writer involves honing your work. At this stage, a writer looks for sharable ideas in their work, tests their ideas against readers and their own standards, commits to revision and learns to let go of what they’ve written. For some, writing will become a way of life and they will find a way to keep at it with diligence.

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