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Product reviews for Improve Your Writing with NLP
Anthony P. Bober, Metapsychology Online Review, February 2014
"Even though I regard myself as a beginning writer with much to learn, I can attest that NLP has been a huge help. That's what I want to share with you." Thus, this book.
This book ranges from inuitionist flow, voice, the hypnotic and similar how-to-write topics to rationalist modalities such as steps, lists, Skinnerian "chunk it down into smaller steps," and workbook exercises. How are you, the reader, to decide if this book is compatible. You could look for it in a bookstore and assess it, but even then without doing what the book asks you to do, it's just a guess how you will react to it. Or you could dump all this if you are writing a novel and just do what Philip Roth does; write it without knowing where you are going so that even your curiosity will stay alive finding out what is going to happen much as the reader does.
Pearson starts with an explanation of what NLP is by way of her personal journey. Next she asks you
to sense how it feels to be a writer both by external environmental support for your effort and by examining the inner environment of your capacity, indentification with the role, and desire to communicate. She employs various models and methods to work through the task of self-expression: the POWER (Preview, Organize, Write, Evaluate, Revise) model; the overarching Disney Creativity model passing through "stage-roles" of Dreamer, Realist, and Critic; use of decision-trees, mindmaps, and storyboards in the Dreamer phase; realistic methods to "blast past writer's block"; staying on task with tricks like the NLP Godiva Chocolate pattern and meeting your future published-author self; writing for the reader; getting feedback and facing the Critic with methods like the NLP Meta Model, followed by writing hypnotically and prolifically. Appendices include chapter worksheets. There is an adequate list of references. Not quite a baker's dozen of chapter mottoes will offer something pithy for everyone.
Some writing experts see presumably negative experiences, such as "writer's block," as in fact a creative lying-fallow when not otherwise a fear of criticism or failure (11). Similarly, Pearson suggests that every problematic behavior is motivated by positive intent and that "failure" is feedback. She peppers the book as well with the stock of tips for writers: collect ideas, keep a journal, write playfully, brainstorm, speed-write, jump around in your outline, write in one-hour blocks, use words that appeal to different senses (88), in addition to much more systematic left-brained activities. Specificity and precision are important lessons NLPers wish to suggest, as the Meta model (175-80) makes clear.
The writing style is breezy and accessible, with a rare run-on sentence and an occasional illogicality:
(140) "He . . . has authored . . . seminars. . . ." and (136) "By learning what prolific writers do, you can copy their methods and approach their level of acumen." Does prolific writing or its imitation produce mental sharpness?
"Writing is a way of connecting with others by sharing one's passion. It's a way of influencing others through the impetus of an idea. It's a way of fulfilling your purpose." (146) If this book is for you, it might be time to take up the lance and slay the Dragon of Fear.
This book ranges from inuitionist flow, voice, the hypnotic and similar how-to-write topics to rationalist modalities such as steps, lists, Skinnerian "chunk it down into smaller steps," and workbook exercises. How are you, the reader, to decide if this book is compatible. You could look for it in a bookstore and assess it, but even then without doing what the book asks you to do, it's just a guess how you will react to it. Or you could dump all this if you are writing a novel and just do what Philip Roth does; write it without knowing where you are going so that even your curiosity will stay alive finding out what is going to happen much as the reader does.
Pearson starts with an explanation of what NLP is by way of her personal journey. Next she asks you
to sense how it feels to be a writer both by external environmental support for your effort and by examining the inner environment of your capacity, indentification with the role, and desire to communicate. She employs various models and methods to work through the task of self-expression: the POWER (Preview, Organize, Write, Evaluate, Revise) model; the overarching Disney Creativity model passing through "stage-roles" of Dreamer, Realist, and Critic; use of decision-trees, mindmaps, and storyboards in the Dreamer phase; realistic methods to "blast past writer's block"; staying on task with tricks like the NLP Godiva Chocolate pattern and meeting your future published-author self; writing for the reader; getting feedback and facing the Critic with methods like the NLP Meta Model, followed by writing hypnotically and prolifically. Appendices include chapter worksheets. There is an adequate list of references. Not quite a baker's dozen of chapter mottoes will offer something pithy for everyone.
Some writing experts see presumably negative experiences, such as "writer's block," as in fact a creative lying-fallow when not otherwise a fear of criticism or failure (11). Similarly, Pearson suggests that every problematic behavior is motivated by positive intent and that "failure" is feedback. She peppers the book as well with the stock of tips for writers: collect ideas, keep a journal, write playfully, brainstorm, speed-write, jump around in your outline, write in one-hour blocks, use words that appeal to different senses (88), in addition to much more systematic left-brained activities. Specificity and precision are important lessons NLPers wish to suggest, as the Meta model (175-80) makes clear.
The writing style is breezy and accessible, with a rare run-on sentence and an occasional illogicality:
(140) "He . . . has authored . . . seminars. . . ." and (136) "By learning what prolific writers do, you can copy their methods and approach their level of acumen." Does prolific writing or its imitation produce mental sharpness?
"Writing is a way of connecting with others by sharing one's passion. It's a way of influencing others through the impetus of an idea. It's a way of fulfilling your purpose." (146) If this book is for you, it might be time to take up the lance and slay the Dragon of Fear.
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05/02/2014 00:00
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