Review of Zen and the Art of Writing
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Matt Graves
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Review of Zen and the Art of Writing
[Following is a volunteer review of "Zen and the Art of Writing" by Ray Hodgson.]
Zen and the Art of Writing by Ray Hodgson is an attempt to inspire new writers to write and sell their first book. The attempt fails for many reasons.
For one thing, the book is only about 100 pages long. It is simply not possible to give a comprehensive writing course in that compressed a space.
This book also sets a bad example by being poorly edited. There is even a typo in the Table of Contents, and I found at least half a dozen others later. Beyond the typos, there were numerous instances of awkward phrasing and other poor choices of style that any editor should have caught and corrected.
The main thing that bothered me was that this sounded like it was written "online." The author's tone suggested the attention span of someone posting his thoughts on Facebook or TikTok, two social media platforms Hodgson does mention in the chapter on marketing. When reading a book, I expect a slower pacing that lets me know the author has given his thoughts some time to marinate. This was quite the opposite: half-baked and scatterbrained, even in its better moments.
And quite frankly, there were not a lot of better moments. The only part of this book that did impress me (enough to mention) was the chapter in which the author used examples from his own novel, The Protectors, to illustrate the challenges of the writing process.
After a certain point, I rolled my eyes every time the author directed the reader to his website for further information. I began to wonder if he should have just set up a comprehensive website and skipped writing a book to go with it.
These complaints are ironic, considering that the author was a clinical psychologist for 30 years and devoted the entire second chapter of this work to a discussion of meditation and how it helps with creativity.
There were actually a lot of good ideas sprinkled throughout, but they were poorly organized. And the discussion of those ideas was underdeveloped. There were about as many quotes in this book as there was actual writing. (And that is where I noticed some of the typos. There would be a great quote, and then the source's name would be misspelled.) It is fair to say that this book is far too heavy on the Zen aspect and far too thin on the actual work of writing. As great as it can be to think outside the box, this falls into the category of being so open-minded that one's brains can fall out.
After finishing this disappointing volume, I went to my shelf to peruse a book with a very similar title, from approximately three decades before: Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury. The contrast in the tone of the two books is profound. Skimming back over Bradbury's collection of essays helped me put my finger on what I hated about Ray Hodgson's more recent collection of thoughts. Bradbury described the writing process with passion and even poetry, while Hodgson made it sound more like a fun way to try one's hand at becoming an entrepreneur.
So if you are someone who feels driven to write, and hope to find inspiration, you will probably just find this book depressing. It sucks the heart and soul out of what makes a person want to write in the first place. If, on the other hand, you see writing as more of a get-rich-quick opportunity, or something nifty that you can take or leave, then this book may very well float your boat.
This book merits only one out of five stars. While the author names his editor and recommends her services, I do not wish to humiliate her publicly in this review. But I believe she made a mistake by approving this as being ready for publication. In one part of the book, the author admits that his typing is "pathetic" and that he writes on random scraps of paper before dictating his words into a computer program, which converts his spoken words into text. I can believe it. The overall quality of this book truly is pathetic. And I could not in good conscience recommend it to anyone I wanted to see become a good writer.
******
Zen and the Art of Writing
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Zen and the Art of Writing by Ray Hodgson is an attempt to inspire new writers to write and sell their first book. The attempt fails for many reasons.
For one thing, the book is only about 100 pages long. It is simply not possible to give a comprehensive writing course in that compressed a space.
This book also sets a bad example by being poorly edited. There is even a typo in the Table of Contents, and I found at least half a dozen others later. Beyond the typos, there were numerous instances of awkward phrasing and other poor choices of style that any editor should have caught and corrected.
The main thing that bothered me was that this sounded like it was written "online." The author's tone suggested the attention span of someone posting his thoughts on Facebook or TikTok, two social media platforms Hodgson does mention in the chapter on marketing. When reading a book, I expect a slower pacing that lets me know the author has given his thoughts some time to marinate. This was quite the opposite: half-baked and scatterbrained, even in its better moments.
And quite frankly, there were not a lot of better moments. The only part of this book that did impress me (enough to mention) was the chapter in which the author used examples from his own novel, The Protectors, to illustrate the challenges of the writing process.
After a certain point, I rolled my eyes every time the author directed the reader to his website for further information. I began to wonder if he should have just set up a comprehensive website and skipped writing a book to go with it.
These complaints are ironic, considering that the author was a clinical psychologist for 30 years and devoted the entire second chapter of this work to a discussion of meditation and how it helps with creativity.
There were actually a lot of good ideas sprinkled throughout, but they were poorly organized. And the discussion of those ideas was underdeveloped. There were about as many quotes in this book as there was actual writing. (And that is where I noticed some of the typos. There would be a great quote, and then the source's name would be misspelled.) It is fair to say that this book is far too heavy on the Zen aspect and far too thin on the actual work of writing. As great as it can be to think outside the box, this falls into the category of being so open-minded that one's brains can fall out.
After finishing this disappointing volume, I went to my shelf to peruse a book with a very similar title, from approximately three decades before: Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury. The contrast in the tone of the two books is profound. Skimming back over Bradbury's collection of essays helped me put my finger on what I hated about Ray Hodgson's more recent collection of thoughts. Bradbury described the writing process with passion and even poetry, while Hodgson made it sound more like a fun way to try one's hand at becoming an entrepreneur.
So if you are someone who feels driven to write, and hope to find inspiration, you will probably just find this book depressing. It sucks the heart and soul out of what makes a person want to write in the first place. If, on the other hand, you see writing as more of a get-rich-quick opportunity, or something nifty that you can take or leave, then this book may very well float your boat.
This book merits only one out of five stars. While the author names his editor and recommends her services, I do not wish to humiliate her publicly in this review. But I believe she made a mistake by approving this as being ready for publication. In one part of the book, the author admits that his typing is "pathetic" and that he writes on random scraps of paper before dictating his words into a computer program, which converts his spoken words into text. I can believe it. The overall quality of this book truly is pathetic. And I could not in good conscience recommend it to anyone I wanted to see become a good writer.
******
Zen and the Art of Writing
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: The Reverend Psychopath by Dr Andrew Rynne
