Voice of the Muse is certainly a spiritual approach to writing, and it may not be suitable for every kind of writer. Some people may dismiss the book as being too much of an incantation – continually pushing the reader away from the page and into the (foul) rag and bone shop of the heart (where all ladders start…), but Gerson’s point is that there is little that a writing teacher can provide in the way of pragmatic advice because, as Yeats himself said so beautifully, the true voice comes from within the writer. The one thing that you can do is encourage and coach, and Gerson has been doing this for 15 years in his successful classes, and does this very well in Voice of the Muse. The book provides the tools to guide us towards our own stories, urging us that we must open our hearts and allow ourselves the space, and the self-trust, to do so. We not only have the ability; we have the responsibility.
Voice of the Muse: Answering the Call to Write
Mark David Gerson
LightLines Media
Paperback: 248 pages, Feb 2008, ISBN: 9780979547553
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