The Muses Among Us: Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer’s Craft by Kim Stafford
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I was unimpressed with this collection of anecdotes? Short stories? Inspirational, personal experiences?
I really could not take the author seriously after he wrote that he “gleans” inspiration from other people’s conversations that he feels are creative and good enough to write down. Furthermore, I found that this collection lacked direction and purpose and didn’t feel authentic. Every chapter I read I asked myself, if this was actually based on his own experiences or if it sprung from another person’s moment of creativity that he happened to eavesdrop on.
Having said that, the chapters titled “Quilting Your Solitude” and “Happy Problems” did contain a few very good pieces of advice and tips to improve one’s creative writing.
I had to read this one for a course I am taking, therefore, I will most likely refer back to it throughout the duration of this term for discussion purposes, but I would not necessarily recommend it.
