Read what people are saying about The Productive Writer
“Sage Cohen’s The Productive Writer is generous, comprehensive, pragmatic, and optimistic, coming from a writer’s life lived honestly and unromantically.”
Rain Taxi Review of Books, Spring 2012
“Thanks to a systematic, organized and highly functional set of guidelines, it’s quite likely that Cohen’s formula really can bring a writer success. If you’ve struggled with productivity, in the form of either getting started or keeping going, Cohen has advice and answers to make each writing session count. Her book will help writers focus on goals, what to accomplish in individual writing sessions, how to branch out from idea to platform, and, ultimately how to continue growing and transforming as a writer. As Cohen herself states, “Productivity is a lifestyle choice,” and her book and success as a writer prove that this is a choice we can all make. This is a book for all writers, not just us literary types.”
Mamas Writing Motherhood: A Conversation on New and Best Books on Craft in Literary Mama
“Sage Cohen has a gift for balancing compassionate support and insight while thoroughly answering every question a writer may have about creating a productive, continually inspired, successful life. From capturing ideas to how to organize your research for target agents and publications to facing your fears. She demonstrates her own process and systems while sharing sweet anecdotes of her own life. As a reader, you are left with an arsenal of powerful thoughts and techniques in uncovering and managing resistance. Especially powerful is her gentle suggestion to let the pleasure, desire and heart touching affect of your ideas and writing into your life. This alone is no match for resistance and other unproductive tricks we writers cope with daily.”
Niya Christine, from Productive Writer — Productive Life
“The Productive Writer isn’t a book I will be putting on my bookshelf; it will stay on my desk for regular reminders. I’ve already used so many of its suggestions for my own practice, and in circles where I share these ideas with other writers.”
Mary Ann Moore, from Story Circle Book Reviews
“Sage, as her name suggests, is a very wise writer. This book, linked in with her new platform ‘The Path of Possibility’, brings writing and productivity together in a way that amplifies both and clearly sets them in the context of a broader creative life. Like Sage’s previous book, the wonderful ‘Writing the Life Poetic’, The Productive Writer has the effect of taking you by the hand and encouraging you, gently and practically, every step of the way from vision to fruition.”
Excerpted from Terri Connelan’s full review
“This book is a must-have for your writing reference collection”
Krissy Brady
“This little book (it’s almost pocket size) from Writer’s Digest Books, is quite the practical guide for the new writer, for the struggling writer, for the writer coming back from time off. It’s level headed with enough fancy to keep it light, enjoyable and pleasantly palatable while tackling a reorganization of your writing career . . . your life . . . your passion.”
Excerpted from a review by C. Hope Clark
“What made the biggest impact on me was Cohen sharing her perfectionist tendencies and how it was hindering her success as a writer. Her solution: Do the best that you can and then send out your work. Let others decide if your writing is worthy of publication. Don’t sabotage yourself by requiring that everything you write be absolutely perfect before you release it to the world. Like what has happened to me, your writing will go nowhere. It will collect dust among the computer archives. Cohen doesn’t just say “Do the best that you can,” she tells you how. She provides editing advice, organizational tips, and suggestions on how to find time to write. She has an entire chapter devoted to “Publishing and Landing Gigs!”
Excerpted from Sarah Joyce Bryant’s full review
“Sage Cohen, author of Writing the Life Poetic and The Productive Writer, waxes poetic about the writing life and finding your own unique place in the world.”
Writer’s Digest Author Q&A
“I’m happy to say that as much as a book could do it, this is the one that could actually help me be a more productive writer.”
Excerpt from Becoming A Fiction Writer, October 14, 2010
“One of my favorite chapters was Chapter 1: “Harnessing Potential”, in which the reader is invited to describe their vision of the ideal writing life, and then to make it concrete by constructing a pie chart to quantitatively describe how much time the reader chooses to allocate to various writing (and non-writing) activities, such as sleep, family time, job responsibilities, writing, and personal time. The moment I created my own personal pie chart, I could immediately see what the difficulty with my aspirations were—my “ideal day” added up to far more than 24 hours worth of activities! This exercise forced me to prioritize my goals, and set more realistic expectations.”
Excerpt from Prose Posies, October 29, 2010