Given my aversion to self-help books, I did find Brande's advice encouraging for some reason. She skips the obvious technical sides of the vocation so ubiquitous in materials of this sort, preferring to emphasize intangible aspects that verge on the metaphysical. One can dismiss her theories as mere newspaper astrology but I sympathize with the idea that it takes more than an impeccable command of language to don the writer's mantle. It has a lot to do with internal dispositions.

This note was recorded by Renato Guerreiro from page of BECOMING A WRITER.