The Way of the Fearless Writer - Beth Kempton
A refreshingly gentle take at how to structure a writing practice for those who are beating themselves up for not writing and those working up the courage to share their writing with others.
What: Framed around the Buddhist Three Gates of Libertation (Desirelessness, Formlessness, Emptiness), Kempton grounds writers in themselves so they can be free and fearless in sharing their writing.
Who: Beth Kempton is a Japanologist and founder of the company Do What You Love. Her other books inlcude Freedom Seeker, Wabi Sabi and Calm Christmas.
Tone: Gentle but insistant, a guide along the path, a conversation with a wise teacher.
Read it When: You are afraid to start. You are feeling trapped, overwhelmed, and/or too tired to write. You need a gentle reintroduction to a writing routine. You are afraid to share your work with others.
% on Writing: Medium to High
Keywords: Gentle Writing Advice, Flow, Becoming a Pro, Writing Exercises, Memoir and Non-fiction
This book has been on my nightstand for several weeks now as nightime reading. It has been a pleasant companion, a gentle reminder of purpose and intention. I picked this one up because its framing felt interesting, and while it falls a bit towards the self-help side of the spectrum, the writing advice is good and may re-frame the way you think about a writing career.
Kempton is a western scholar of Japanese and Chinese thought, and the author of several other self-help books including Freedom Seeker and Calm Christmas. Per her bio, she has two degrees in Japanese language, has worked as a translator, and is a yoga instructor and Reki master (a form of touch healing).
The Way of the Fearless Writer is is structured around the three Buddhist Gates of Liberation, a Buddhist mediation teaching on the realizations you need to have in order to gain enlightenment. Kempton orders them Muganmon (desirelesness), Musōmon (formlessness), and Kūmon (Emptiness). She also brings in several elements of Daoist teachings and quotes from the Tao Te Ching, Dao's foundational philosophical text.
The first section (Desirelessness) focuses on pre-writing, freewriting/journaling, and gathering materials especially for memoir or personal essays. Kemption talks about how to write anywhere and using ritual to build a writing routine that allows you to enter a writing space quickly. She also covers finding things to write about, and caring for your physical self while writing. Each section is introduced with a personal essay, anchoring her advice and talking about her own experience in writing her books and being a mother.
The second section (Formlessness) introduces her concept of three "states" of writing which she frames as Gas, Liquid, and Solid. Gaseous writing is "all over the place" and involves journaling or daily pages, discovery writing. She says this is the most private type of writing and is generally not shared but used to fuel other writing. Liquid writing is "flowing in a particular direction." This is first-draft or flow state writing that is meant to be refined but is still in a "wild" state. Finally solid state writing is "firm like ice." This involves editing and shaping writing for sharing with others and publication. While I'm not sure the complete renaming of the writing process is necessary, she does offer useful advice on each stage and it is a useful overview of what a writing journey for a piece of work might look like.
The third and final section of the book (Emptiness) involves a writer's professional life. She covers Aprenticing (learning how to learn, continuous learning), Authoring (what does publication look like), Harmonizing (dealing with success and rejection cycles), and Living (finding balance in your life as an author). This overview of post-publication life is a good forward view for most early stage writers and I think her notes on dealing with fear and fear of succes would be useful for just about anyone. It is also here that she talks most about living fearlessly, because sharing your work and facing rejection can also bring you the most joy. Overall the book is worth a read for this section alone, though I think many authors will get a lot out of the earlier sections as well.
So let's talk about the white lady in the room. Kempton is British and writing using a mostly Japanese and Chinese frames. There are certainly also some "white lady has epiphany in non-western spaces" moments in the book which I find problematic. And then there is the whiff of wine-mom watered down philosphy and self-help book forced cheer. In counter to these critiques, the book has an extensive bibliography of citations for its references to sources and quotations and Kempton lived and worked in Japan for many years. However, if you have a low tolerence for these factors, skip this one.
Overall Way of the Fearless Writer is a good writing book if you are trying to work up the courage to share your writing with others, or you feel like you need encouragement to get started on a project. It's also a refreshingly gentle take at how to structure a writing practice for those who are beating themselves up to finish a project.
