Books about writing walk a fine line. A good writing book provides support and inspiration, but a book that is too dense or too thorough risks bogging down the reader and creating another in the long line of distractions that await anyone trying to write. Other books about writing, though, are simply too good; the desire to finish reading them beats out any nascent desire to put one's own pen to paper. In A Year of Writing Dangerously: 365 Days of Inspiration and Encouragement. Barbara Abercrombie (Courage & Craft) breaks down her advice to writers into 365 short passages, one for each day of the year. The passages are numbered but not dated, allowing writers to begin whenever it suits them.
In this way, Abercrombie provides ongoing assistance to writers as well as an incentive to hit the desk--I wonder what today's advice is?--without becoming yet another diversionary project. Meanwhile, the daily advice and encouragement itself is well-crafted and engaging, balanced in such a way that it generally manages to be helpful without being overbearing or confusing. Many days contain wisdom of the "just do it, write the most awful stuff in the world, get your pen on the paper and you cannot fail" variety. Others provide concrete advice, while a third category provides brief glimpses into the lives of renowned writers--real-life examples of how writing is always work, but never impossible. --Dani Alexis Ryskamp, blogger at The Book Cricket