Review: Beate Not The Poore Desk


Wangerin, W. (2016). Beate not the poore desk: A writer to young writers. Rabbit Room Press. 

Should anyone ask for a recommendation of books to read to help him become a better writer, I happily add Walter Wangerin, Jr.’s Beate Not the Poore Desk: A Writer to Young Writers to my brief list: 

Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir Of the Craft

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

William Zinsser, On Writing Well

 

While not an intentional writing manual, I learned from Robert Pirsig instructions to his students about writing in Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. 

Wangerin’s book has two parts. First Part: Art: It’s Dynamics and Its Potency. Second Part: Practical Advice. Both parts are equally valuable. Each chapter within is pithy. No word or image is wasted. His personal stories and illustrations from literature all work to persuade the writer to work harder and smarter at his craft. The result may transform a readers life. 

What is needed to get to this point? A love for words and sentences. The tenacity to keep writing, thinking, observing, expanding the imagination, revising, and attending to the ethics of storytelling. 

The practical advice includes reading good literature, observe the world and its ways accurately, practice writing through journal writing and correspondence, and getting out of the writing room and into the real world to engage with real people.  Wangerin advocates keeping your day job for several reasons. On page 87, he notes that “William Carlos Williams was a physician. T.S. Eliot was an editor. Wendell Berry is a farmer. Wallace Stevens was the vice president of an insurance firm in Hartford, CT. George Herbert, a pastor in England, Gerard Manley Hopkins a Catholic priest, … John Gardner was a an academic, a Ph.D. professor, a philosopher, and a medievalist.” 

As most writers wish to be read by a larger audience, Wangerin relates his experiences of securing an agent and connecting with publishers. 

All good advice and time well spent.

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