How to Get Through Hard Times by Making Up Stories
Hardcover, 288 pages
English language
Published Aug. 17, 2021 by Tordotcom.
The world is on fire. So tell your story.
Things are scary right now. We’re all being swept along by a tidal wave of history, and it’s easy to feel helpless. But we’re not helpless: we have minds, and imaginations, and the ability to visualize other worlds and valiant struggles. And writing can be an act of resistance that reminds us that other futures and other ways of living are possible.
Full of memoir, personal anecdote, and insight about how to flourish during the present emergency, Never Say You Can’t Survive is the perfect manual for creativity in unprecedented times.
Charlie Jane Anders provides a throughout and heartfelt expression of not only what it means to be a writer in the modern day, but how to push through the rougher patches. This guide-book for the troublesome days of writing is full of inspirations, references, suggestions, and more. My only complaint is that I wish the book has a glossary of recommended media!
I struggled with this book. I genuinely love Anders's voice and geekdom. I find her endearing as shit and someone I'd love to hang out and geek out with. But our processes are just SO different. There were entire chapters that I didn't understand on a fundamental level and my mind just kept wandering. Granted, it kept wandering to thoughts about my various projects and how Anders's advice either did or did not apply, so I suppose that is value enough.
But it also made me question myself a bit. I just don't think about my writing THIS much. Or at least, not all of my writing? Idk, it's hard to describe in a Goodreads review, but I started to wonder if I'm doing things wrong? Which is isn't necessarily a bad thought to have. The point is to analyze my process and learn and grow...
I think I'll be …
I struggled with this book. I genuinely love Anders's voice and geekdom. I find her endearing as shit and someone I'd love to hang out and geek out with. But our processes are just SO different. There were entire chapters that I didn't understand on a fundamental level and my mind just kept wandering. Granted, it kept wandering to thoughts about my various projects and how Anders's advice either did or did not apply, so I suppose that is value enough.
But it also made me question myself a bit. I just don't think about my writing THIS much. Or at least, not all of my writing? Idk, it's hard to describe in a Goodreads review, but I started to wonder if I'm doing things wrong? Which is isn't necessarily a bad thought to have. The point is to analyze my process and learn and grow...
I think I'll be stewing over this book for awhile yet. I think I learned more than I even realize.
