Lynn H. Blackburn

I originally reviewed Writing for the Soul by Jerry B. Jenkins in August of 2010 over at The Write Conversation. I’m sharing my review with you today for one reason…I have a copy to give away! I received an additional copy recently and I’d love to see it go to someone who’s been wanting to add it to their library.

You have five ways to enter and they are detailed at the bottom of this post. And yes, you are welcome to do all five to increase your chances of winning!

My review:

I thought writing a review of Writing for the Soul by Jerry B. Jenkins would be easy.

Until I opened it and found the list of authors who recommended Writing for the Soul. I experienced several days of mind-numbing terror. What can I add? Let’s face it, when Francine Rivers, James Scott Bell and Angela Hunt (along with many others) say you should read the book . . . well, it won’t hurt my feelings if you stop reading now to save yourself some time and energy and go buy the book.

But, as you are a glutton for punishment and have continued reading, I’ll tell you that when I picked the book from its spot on my desk (along with my slowly growing collection of writing books) I intended to skim through it to refresh my memory and then whip up a review.

Instead, I read it straight through. And I learned more this time than I did the first two times I read it.

Writing for the Soul was the first writing book I read. I found it at my local library a week or so after completing the first draft of my first novel and a day or so after it occurred to me that it might be a good idea to learn something about writing if I was going to be a writer. (Yes, you read that right and yes, I know that I’ve gone about everything as backward as possible.)

After finishing Writing for the Soul, I faced the harsh reality that I knew nothing about writing and that my first draft was riddled with errors that would mark me for the amateur I was.

I was disappointed, but not hopeless because the solutions for many of my mistakes were contained in Writing for the Soul. This book covers a wide-range of topics, from the importance of selecting the right POV to the importance of sitting in the right chair.

Writing for the Soul is funny, the wisdom doled out in manageable slices, and the hard realities sandwiched between entertaining anecdotes from Jerry B. Jenkins’ career. This is a book I’ll read at least once a year. And I’ll pull it off the shelf for years to come anytime I need a quick refresher course or to be reminded that while writing is a sacred calling it’s also hard work—even for Jerry B. Jenkins.

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