Write for Your Life

The Home Seminar for Writers

By: Lawrence Block

Narrated by: Richard Neer

Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

The home version of Lawrence Block's famous seminar for writers!

In the 1980s, Lawrence Block developed an interactional seminar that adapted elements of the human potential movement specifically for writers. For several years, he and his wife, Lynne, traveled the country conducting seminars that focused on the inner game of writing and designed to enable participants to get out of their own way and put their best work on paper.

This book was written to make the seminar available to a larger audience, and at a lower price. Block self-published it in 1986, in an edition of 5,000 copies, which sold out in short order. A few years later, he stopped offering the seminar, having tired of the guru trip and preferring to concentrate on his own writing, and ever since, the book's been impossible to obtain.

When e-books came around, Block arranged for Harper Collins to publish Write for Your Life in that format. But it's the sort of text one wants to be able to page through, and a printed book is just more user-friendly. In the fall of 2013, an assistant found the last box of 25 copies of the 1986 edition in a storage cupboard; Block offered them in a newsletter, and they sold out within three hours.

This is the original book, with a foreword bringing it up to date. With the book, as with the seminar, it doesn't matter at all where you are in your writing career or what kind of writing you do. That's all beside the point. Write for Your Life is about making the best out of what you are and who you are.

And now, with the e-book and subsequent print editions of Write for Your Life continuing to find an eager audience, we’re delighted to make the book available for the first time in audio.

©1985, 2020 Lawrence Block (P)2021 Lawrence Block

Loved this!

Daily distractions in life? Who hasn’t got them. I finally discovered the perfect way to combat them so to dive into my writing project: listen to these encouraging ideas and mind-enhancing tools from Lawrence Block’s Write For Your Life. What made the info engaging was the delivery by Richard Neer. Richard’s steady,strong voice throws understanding on the strategies and tools of this craft – even when I’m driving to and from the grocery store.
B Duncan

A happy surprise

I've been a Lawrence Block fan for decades, having read perhaps 50 of his novels, plus all of his books on writing apart from this one. It's long been out of print, and tracking down a hardcover copy was next to impossible in my price range. Happily, this new audio edition allowed me to plug the hole in my collection.

The title of my review, "A happy surprise," reflects my discovery that the book focuses less on writing and more on developing the mindset to write. As such, Block devotes much of the book to creating affirmations, manifesting results, overcoming self-doubt, and identifying one's limiting beliefs and personal truths. Meanwhile, he spends virtually no time on grammar, finding a publisher, etc. No problem there: Block has covered that ground thoroughly in his other books for writers, but I imagine listeners might be surprised if they buy this book expecting a primer on plot and structure.

A lot of "Write for Your Life" covers similar ground as Rhonda Byrne's 2006 bestseller, "The Secret." If you loved the latter, you'll likely find a similar book tailored exclusively toward writers to be useful and engaging. But if you found "The Secret" to be a little too new-age or metaphysical, you'll likely place "Write for Your Life" in the same camp.

Me? I enjoyed it, and plan to start using the affirmation exercises. I probably won't relisten to this as often as I do Block's other writing books, but that doesn't mean I'm not glad to have it.

Audio is a great format for this book

I guess anyone can see from my reviews that I'm a big fan of Lawrence Block, so I've actually already read this book & worked through some of these exercises before. However, I was pleased to discover the audiobook format, as it's perfect for this material. You feel like the author is talking to you in a direct conversational style that's very supportive. The narrator sounds so friendly & approachable.

(Note: I received a review copy from freeaudiobookcodes.com but no review was required.)