Part Wild: A Writer's Guide to Harnessing the Creative Power of Resistance

Description

"A must-read for any aspiring or seasoned writer." -Huffington Post We all have the call to create. The question is...why don't we answer it? We all come pre-loaded with a creative spark that drives us to innovate, explore, express, and make our unique contribution to the world. Often, though, that drive doesn't get us very far down the road before it runs right smack into resistance-the mysterious force that thwarts creativity. But resistance needn't be the enemy of writing-or any other creative endeavor. Deb Norton's Part Wild provides fun and practical ways to turn resistance into a creative asset. Whether it presents as doubt, perfectionism, or Deb's favorite: a chorus of withering inner critics, the power of resistance can be leveraged to launch the creative process with real momentum. Once we harness resistance, we can let our creative impulses off the leash. Norton has turned a decade of sold-out writing retreats and private coaching into a process for powering up your creative ideas. In Part Wild, she shares dozens of illuminating and effective practices and quick-start prompts that are guaranteed to get us out of our heads and onto the page. Just as The Artist's Way gave millions of readers permission to explore their creative side, Part Wild shows writers of all levels of experience and skill how to harness the electrifying power of resistance and get writing.

Deb Norton is a writing coach for screenwriters, novelists, and nonfiction writers globally. She leads writing workshops internationally, is a master teacher at Hedgebrook, and teaches immersive retreats in story structure and archetype for writers and novelists. After graduating from the master's acting program at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, she spent an eventful ten years dutifully pursuing her acting career before her desire for a deeper connection to Story led her to pen her own plays and screenplays. Her full-length play, The Whole Banana, has been optioned for a movie. She lives in the Northern Sierra Mountains in California.

"...a must-read for any aspiring or seasoned writer." * Huffington Post * "Part Wild shines with several ideas about how to banish [the inner critic] from your own mind." * Psychology Today * "Personally, I found myself reaching for a pen long before each chapter's end." * BookPage * "Part Wild: A Writer's Guide to Harnessing the Creative Power of Resistance is like having a personal writing coach at your disposal twenty-four hours a day. Stuck, blocked or in hiding, there's something in this volume guaranteed to free you from the fear that binds and suppresses your best impulses. It will transform you from the writer you wish you were, to the writer you've always known you could be." -- Lyn Greene, Co-Executive Producer, Masters of Sex, Executive Producer, Boss, Nip/Tuck, and The Interestings "Resistance is a natural part of the creative process. It is the tension that births new life. I am so grateful to Deb Norton for her brilliant work with resistance; she has helped to transform the complexities of the creative process into functional, effective practices...that work! Part Wild: A Writer's Guide to Harnessing the Creative Power of Resistance is more than a book on creative writing, it is an essential guide for creative living." -- Dara Marks, Ph.D., Author of Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc "This is a wise, delightful and powerful book, unlike anything else of its kind I've come across. It's written by a writer for writers, and you can feel that compassion and rigor on every page. Norton shares practical ideas with grace and ample lashings of humor. Writers of all kinds will find this a godsend." -- Ellen McLaughlin, Playwright, Actor, Professor of Playwriting, Barnard College "Writers, you've got a new BFF-Deb Norton! Read her book and do what she says; you will not have writer's block again. Seriously." -- Ellen Sandler, former Co-Exec-Prod. and writer for Everybody Loves Raymond and author of The TV Writer's Workbook "Deb Norton's writing is infused withso much heart and compassion and her unique sense of humor and curiosity is infectious! This book inspired me to PLUNGE!" -- Didi Conn, Actress, Playwright "When you get stuck in your writing-and I'd give a 99.9% for sure guarantee that you will-take hope. Somewhere in Part Wild you will find just the right suggestion to get you moving. Deb Norton is the highest leaping cheerleader a writer could wish for!" -- Nina Rothschild Utne, Activist & cofounder, Utne Reader, cofounder Lily Springs Farms "Norton provides over three dozen practical exercises and prompts to help writers overcome their inner critics and channel their energy toward new levels of productivity." * Poets & Writers *