Review by Andsogoodnight -- The Writer's Roadmap

[Andsogoodnight]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Writer's Roadmap" by Leigh Shulman.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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The Writer's Roadmap: Paving the Way to Your Ideal Writing Life by Leigh Shulman, is a book about how to create a working outline of what you desire and ways to get there. Shulman begins with a discussion of her personal journey. She got to a point where she knew that what she was doing wasn't working; she had no time for writing which was something she loved and wanted to do. In desperation, she joined a women's business group and learned about OGSM.

OGSM (Objectives, Goals, Strategies, Measures) is a business tool used to figure out where you are going and how you are going to get there. In Shulman's case, she wrote up her OGSM and began to achieve her life-long goals of being a writer. In The Writer's Roadmap, Shulman describes exactly what the OGSM is and gives clear step by step examples of how to write your own.

I really enjoyed the way she laid out the steps to becoming clear on what you want out of your writing life. In fact, I felt this book would be helpful to just about anyone with life goals who isn't sure the best way to achieve those goals. While specifically written for writers and with examples from her students, someone could translate the path into their own. The examples were really nice to read as they covered many different writer goals and paths to get there. It wasn't just a book for how to write a novel.

This is a short, quick read. Each step is broken down with clear and easy instructions to follow towards creating your own path. The activities are easy to complete and do not take long. When I finished reading the book, I had a clear strategy to follow towards my goals. The one thing the book doesn't do is give you strategies for finding customers for your work. If you are looking for a way to do that, look for another source. This book will teach you to clearly define what you want out of your writing life, but you must put in the work to get there.

I give this book 4 out of 4 stars. The editing was excellent, the writing informative and interesting, and overall valuable. The only part of this book that I didn't like was the minor profanity in the dedication and the author's note at the end. Although I didn't care for it, this did not detract from the book in any way. Anyone looking for a way to be more organized, whether in their writing life, or in their life goals in general could benefit from this book.

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The Writer's Roadmap
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