Overview

'Cathy is the person who first told me to write about my mental health when I was nervous to do so. She is a great writer herself and this is brilliant.' - Matt Haig Why do we want to write and what stops us? How does the urge to express ourselves fight with the worry that no-one will care or that we will get in trouble? How do we identify and overcome everything that gets in our way so we can start making work? Sunday Times bestselling author Cathy Rentzenbrink shows you how to tackle all this and more in Write It All Down, a guide to putting your life on the page. This is a kind, encouraging and stimulating book that explores the nature of memoir writing and offers helpful guidance on how to write your life on paper. Rentzenbrink will help you to discover the pleasure and solace to be found in writing; the profound satisfaction of wrestling a story onto a page and seeing the events of your life transformed through the experience of writing the self. Perfect for both seasoned writers as well as writing amateurs and everyone in between, this helpful handbook will steer you through the philosophical and practical challenges of writing the self. Intertwined with reflections, anecdotes and exercises, Write It All Down is at once an intimate and enjoyable narrative and an invitation to share your story.

Full Product Details

9781529056259

Table of Contents

Reviews

Cathy is the person who first told me to write about my mental health when I was nervous to do so. She is a great writer herself and this [is] brilliant. -- Matt Haig, bestselling author of <i>Reasons to Stay Alive </i>and <i>The Midnight Library</i> A gentle, wise and witty book that will take you by the hand and guide your words onto the page - I truly wish I'd read it before I began to write. -- Raynor Winn, <i>Sunday Times </i>bestselling author of <i>The Salt Path </i>and <i>The Wild Silence</i> Cathy has an extraordinary gift for helping people tell their stories and you need this gently inspirational book in your life. -- Nina Stibbe, author of the award-winning <i>Love, Nina </i>and <i>Reasons to Be Cheerful</i> A wonderful, inspiring and practical book...This is a gift of a book to aspiring writers, and any writer. Cathy has mined her own experience, heart and wisdom to guide us gently in to putting words on a page, and those pages building to a book. I recommend this book to anyone who wants inspiration, concrete tips and encouragement to write. -- Julia Samuel, author of <i>Grief Works </i>and <i>This Too Shall Pass</i> I've been so inspired by Cathy's generous wisdom, and I can hear her voice in these pages...[Write It All Down] is full of wonderful advice, but above all it feels like having an encouraging friend by your side. -- Catherine Cho, author of <i>Inferno: A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness</i> I can remember Cathy encouraging me too, when I wasn't sure I could pull off a memoir. She's clearly the right person to be writing this book. -- Sophie Heawood, author of <i>The Hungover Games</i> Please read this book...Warm, wise, helpful and practical, Cathy Rentzenbrink outlines all the reasons we come up with not to write and then lovingly tells us to get on with it... I loved it. Kindness and encouragement brim from every page. -- Marianne Power, author of <i>Help Me!: How Self-Help Has Not Changed My Life</i> Cathy Rentzenbrink's Write It All Down is typically generous thoughtful and kind. If you're thinking of writing memoir this is the book for you. -- Marina Benjamin, author of <i>Last Days in Babylon, The Middlepause, </i>and <i>Insomnia</i> I love this book. It's personal and intimate and full of exactly the kind of wisdom I need most days, told exactly how I need it told. It'll bring many stories into the world, and for that it's invaluable. -- David Whitehouse, award-winning author of <i>Bed, Mobile Library </i>and <i>The Long Forgotten</i> I've spent the morning chatting with Cathy Rentzenbrink, even though she's at the other end of the country and completely unaware of our tete a tete. What a gift: to write yourself onto my sofa, gently explaining me to myself. What a writer. -- Dr Kathryn Mannix, author of <i>Listen </i>and <i>With The End In Mind</i> I loved the whole thing...It was good to see a lot of the places I've got to with my own writing practice reflected in Cathy's suggestions. -- Meg-John Barker, author of <i>Rewriting the Rules </i>and <i>Life Isn't Binary</i> Astonishingly good, not just on how to write about your life, but why to as well.' * Steve Biddulph, bestselling author of 'Raising Boys' *

Author Information

Cathy Rentzenbrink is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller The Last Act of Love, A Manual for Heartache and Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Books. It took her twenty years to wrestle her own life story on the page and she loves to use what she has learnt about the profound nature of writing the self in the service of others. Cathy has taught for Arvon, Curtis Brown Creative, at Falmouth University and at festivals and in prisons, and welcomes anyone, no matter what their experience, education, background or story. She believes that everyone's life would be improved by picking up a pen and is at her happiest when encouraging her students to have the courage to delve into themselves and see the magic that will start to happen on the page.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available