I didn’t think the title of this book would be so literal. When I started reading, I expected to get applicable advice when it came to starting a story, sticking to a story, and finally finishing, but it goes a lot further than that, and a lot broader. Through personal accounts and opinion, Betsy Lerner delivers advice for all phases of a writers life, laying out complete life paths for many different types of people, pitfalls certain kinds of writer might find along the way, and the successes one could expect if you do things the right way. It really does offer a view of ‘The Forest’ when going in I was just expecting to see the top of a canopy or two.

She defines several types of writer in the beginning, all of which I expect most people could find some traits in common with. There’s the ambivalent writer that struggles to pick a project and get anything done, the natural who has been writing since before they can remember, the wicked child who constantly exposes their family through writing, and finally the neurotic writer, people who suffer from various nervous habits, from picking your fingers to full blown paranoia. I’m not sure which I found the most kindred. I have most of the tendencies of the ambivalent writer, but I think I deal with them a little better than she described. I started making up stories early, and I always loved to disappear into a book, but the profound compulsion to do nothing but write has never been there. I don’t think I’m particularly neurotic, and I don’t recall ever trying to expose my parents through writing. Now that I know it’s on the table though, they’d better watch out!

If there’s one complaint I have about this book, it’s that predefining a set of writers was a bit of a shortcut. It was smart in that Lerner was able to take these concepts, throw them in a pile, smack a name on them, then relate new concepts back to them later, but it created a vision of very different people between the categories. In reality almost nobody has all the traits from one, or only traits from one. She makes this clear of course, but then, why use these categories? It seems to me all these traits could have been summed up in a way that didn’t encourage you to pick a group to put yourself in, but then, maybe that was the goal.

The rest of the book has anecdotal advice from her career, coverage of the publishing industry, and small ways to get the most out of yourself or another writer. Much of it was obvious stuff, habit forming, focus rituals, that sort of thing, but other bits and pieces I’ve taken to heart and I’m sure will come in handy. An acceptance that most every piece of writing could always use some good editing for example. Her insights into the publishing industry were interesting to hear too. Lerner was an editor, now a publishing agent, and so her perspective differed from all the writers I’ve heard on this subject. It was nice to get a peek from the other side of the curtain. A lot of it was advice for how to kick a writer’s butt into gear, or how to deal with a writer who can’t bear to delete some of their work. I can certainly relate to those. I was hoping for more specific advice on finishing stories, but I suppose hoping for that in a book literally referring to itself as a forest rather than trees was a mistake on my part rather than the author’s.

All in all it was a good read, nothing life changing, but I’m happy I got my hands on it. Maybe in the future, as the forest becomes more available to see for myself, I’ll learn to appreciate it more and more.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley