My Unedited Writing Year by Hope Lyda - GIFT

My Unedited Writing Year by Hope Lyda, 368 pages. NON-FICTION. Harvest House Publishers, 2019. $20.

Language: G (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: G; Violence: G

BUYING ADVISORY: GIFT - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Lyda gives readers 365 invitations to get the creative juices flowing and to assure you that you are, in fact, a writer. With any sort of prompt you can think of -- from making lists to free writes to what if scenarios to writing prayers and blessings -- Lyda plans to help you stretch those writing muscles.

Creativity is not something that Lyda is in want of, but I have discovered that I don’t have as much of it as I thought -- though I suspect that I have more now after accepting some of the Lyda’s invitations. I loved going through the invitations to write from Lyda and that they were all so different. Writing ended up being addictive for me, and I would do several prompts in a row, even when I didn’t have time to. The various prompts helped to stretch the way that I think and engaged my mind with new thoughts. I love this book and think that it is a great undertaking for writers and those who don’t call themselves writers alike. However, I have advised that it not be bought for a library because it invites readers to write within its pages to fully engage with the prompts and the 365 prompts encourages readers to use it as a guide and companion for an entire year, both aspects of which break common library policies.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen