The Writer’s Mentor, by Cathleen Rountree

I recently read The Writer’s Mentor, by Cathleen Rountree, which has already become a favorite resource for me, one of those books on writing I’ll keep on my shelf and go back to again and again.

The Writer’s Mentor isn’t a book full of how-to tips and writing exercises. It’s more about the writing life, and how to keep your creative self nourished. I found it vaguely reminiscent of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, but more specific to writers, and without structured exercises like morning pages and artist dates. Aspiring writers are instead encouraged to find their own best patterns of writing and creative renewal.

Rountree explores writing as a form of expression, a way of life and a means of earning money, including practical tips on getting your writing work accomplished from day to day, and ways to survive the common psychological pitfalls of working as a writer. She addresses the possibility of making a living at writing more realistically than many books on the craft. She shines a light on the ups and downs of writing as a career, including anecdotes of accomplished writers, revealing how they write, how they find inspiration and ideas, and the common dilemmas they encounter. She goes into topics like finding time to write, isolation, depression, writer’s block and procrastination.

I like this book’s accommodating structure, with chapters broken into shorter sections answering common questions about writing. Each of these sections concludes with a set of tips headlined, “The Writer’s Mentor suggests . . . ,” a guide for putting the covered material into practice. Each chapter ends with a review of a movie that relates to the craft of writing or the writing life. Quotations throughout offer inspiration and alternate perspectives from other writers. Here are a few chapter headings to give you an idea of the book’s content:

The Writing Environment: Creating a Sanctuary
When to Write: Assessing the Practicalities of Writing
Page Fright: Overcoming the Fear of Writing
The Inner Life of the Writer: Writing As a Life Choice

One structural element I could’ve done without was the half-page summary at the beginning of each chapter. I found myself skipping it and moving on to the chapter itself. With the comprehensive table of contents and index also provided, this summary seemed redundant.

One of the most impressive features of the book is the resource material in the back, which includes a categorized list of books, as well as extensive lists of reference works and web sites.

I have a feeling that as I go back to this book in the future its usefulness will continue to unfold. Cathleen Rountree is an honest and engaging mentor for anyone who’s chosen to make writing—fiction or nonfiction, for pay, catharsis or pleasure—a major part of their life. If you’re looking for someone to convince you writing is fun, glamorous, an easy way to fame and fortune, or hype that you’ll become an instant bestseller, this isn’t the right book—and perhaps writing isn’t the right career—for you. If you can’t help but write, and you need advice on how to structure your writing time, how to stay enthused with a long project, how to tell whether you have a good idea or not, or simply to feel that someone finally understands the writer in you, then you’re likely to find The Writer’s Mentor a book to keep.