Writing for Bliss: A Seven-Step Plan for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life by Diana Raab {Book Review}

Disclosure: Leels Loves Books, on behalf of Life as Leels, received a copy of this book in exchange for my review.

Book Title: Writing for Bliss: A Seven-Step Plan for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life
Author: Diana Raab
Genre: Self Help
Pages: 238

NEW RELEASE…
A Seven-Step Plan For Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life

Writing for Bliss is most fundamentally about reflection, truth, and freedom. With techniques and prompts for both the seasoned and novice writer, it will lead you to tap into your creativity through storytelling and poetry, examine how life-changing experiences can inspire writing, pursue self-examination and self-discovery through the written word, and, understand how published writers have been transformed by writing.

Poet and memoirist Raab (Lust) credits her lifelong love of writing and its therapeutic effects with inspiring her to write this thoughtful and detailed primer that targets pretty much anyone interested in writing a memoir. Most compelling here is Raab’s willingness to share her intimate stories (e.g., the loss of a relative, ongoing struggles with cancer, a difficult relationship with her mother). Her revelations are encouraging to writers who feel they need “permission to take… a voyage of self-discovery.” The book’s seven-step plan includes plenty of guidance, including on learning to “read like a writer,” and on addressing readers as if “seated across the table .” Raab covers big topics such as the “art and power of storytelling” and small details such as choosing pens and notebooks that you enjoy using. She also helps readers with the important step of “finding your form.”
–PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY

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I signed up to read and review Writing for Bliss because writing has always been a part of my life.

From my first “published” book in first grade (typed, printed and made into a hard cover in a time when computers were just starting to be a “thing”), I have written.

Notebooks upon notebooks are full of stories, poems, lyrics. Um, hello. I am the proud owner of 4 blogs! I am a writer.

When I started reading Writing for Bliss, I started getting concerned with the Foreword and Acknowledgements. I got concerned it may not be what I expected or would interest me, but one sentence in the preface stopped me cold in my tracks –

“My beginnings as a writer began when I was ten years old, writing in my journal to help me cope and heal from the suicide of my grandmother.”

I have always journalled. My greatest pains and fears are written in words.

My grandfather committed suicide.

I am going to relate to this author and I could not wait to see what this book was going to teach me so I could write better and more.

And I am going to be honest – I haven’t finished reading the entire book because every time I read a section, I have to stop and write notes in my bullet journal so I can come back to it later! I am not even doing the writing prompts yet (trust me, I will) but every time I pick up the book to start reading, I get an idea or get inspired and have to make a note so I don’t forget! On top of my blogs – I have 4 book ideas already started with notes and outlines!

I love this book! It has to be the best “self help” book I have read and cannot wait to finish it and then go back through it again for the writing prompts and then go through it again!

If you like to write or you want to write – this book is a great way to get started.

My oldest daughter enjoys writing as well so I am thinking I am going to pass this on to her to read as well so she can be inspired in her writing too!

Definitely a must grab book!

From Loving Healing Press http://www.lhpress.com/

“Writing for Bliss is about the profound ways in which we may be transformed in and through the act of writing. I am grateful to Diana Raab for sharing it, and I trust that you will feel the same as you read on. May you savor the journey.”
–from the foreword by MARK FREEMAN, PhD 

“By listening to ourselves and being aware of what we are saying and feeling, the true story of our life’s past experience is revealed. Diana Raab’s book gives us the insights by which we can achieve this through her life-coaching wisdom and our writing.”
–BERNIE SIEGEL, MD, author of The Art of Healing 

“Only a talented writer who has fought hard to overcome life’s many obstacles could take her readers by the hand and lead them through
the writing process with such enormous compassion, amazing insight, and kindness. Diana Raab is a powerful, wise, intelligent guide well worth our following.”
–JAMES BROWN, author of The Los Angeles Diaries and The River 

“Writing for Bliss is far more than a ‘how-to manual’; it enlightens the creative process with wisdom and a delightful sense of adventure. Bravo to Bliss!”
–LINDA GRAY SEXTON, author of Searching for Mercy Street: My Journey Back to My Mother, Anne Sexton 

“Uniquely blending inspiring insights with practical advice, Diana guides you on a path to discover the story that is truly inside you and yearning to be told.”
–PATRICK SWEENEY, coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Succeed on Your Own Terms

MY MISSION

“Through my writing, mentoring and workshops, I guide others to discover and tell their own unique stories and abiding truths. The craft and practice of writing can be transformative and empowering—a cornerstone for emotional and psychological well-being, and a way to tap into one’s true inner voice and passions.” — Diana Raab

Other books by the author…
 

About the author
Diana Raab, PhD is an award-winning memoirist, poet, blogger, workshop leader and speaker. Her passion is writing for healing and transformation.

She’s the author of eight books and over 500 articles and poems, and editor of two anthologies, WRITERS ON THE EDGE: 22 WRITERS SPEAK ABOUT ADDICTION AND DEPENDENCY and WRITERS AND THEIR NOTEBOOKS. Raab’s two memoirs are REGINA’S CLOSET: FINDING MY GRANDMOTHER’S SECRET JOURNAL and HEALING WITH WORDS: A WRITER’S CANCER JOURNEY. Her fourth and most recent poetry collection is called LUST.

Raab has been writing since the age of 10, when her mother gave her a Khalil Gibran journal to help her cope with her grandmother suicide. Since then, she has been using writing as a way of healing and transformation and inspiring others to do the same.

She is the mother of 3 adult children, and grandmother to two. She lives in Southern California.< She blogs for for Psychology Today, PsychAlive, and Boomer Cafe.

Find the author on the following sites…
Website   Blog   Facebook   Twitter   Pinterest   Goodreads   Amazon 

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