Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Writing for Bliss
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 5/7/1954
WEBSITE: http://dianaraab.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Raab
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born May 7, 1954.
EDUCATION:Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author, nurse, and educator.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals and media outlets, including Psychology Today, Thrive Global, and Elephant Journal.
SIDELIGHTS
Diana Raab is a nurse, an editor, and a memoirist whose work examines the way the act of writing affects the writer as well as the reader. “As an only child of two immigrant parents,” explained the contributor of a biographical blurb to the author’s home page, the Diana Raab Website, “she spent a lot of time crafting letters and chronicling her life in a journal.”
Getting Pregnant and Staying Pregnant and Regina's Closet
Raab’s first book drew on her nursing background. Getting Pregnant and Staying Pregnant: Overcoming Infertility and Managing Your High-risk Pregnancy (which was revised and issued in a new edition more than twenty-five years after it first appeared under the title Your High-risk Pregnancy: A Practical and Supportive Guide) provides expectant mothers with prenatal advice to produce healthy babies. “In a supportive tone,” stated Library Journal critic Barbara M. Bibel, writing about Your High-risk Pregnancy, “Raab and Norwitz guide readers through the various care options available.”
Raab is perhaps best known as a memoirist; her first volume of memoir, Regina’s Closet: Finding My Grandmother’s Secret Journal, deals with the recovery of the story of her grandmother Regina Klein. Klein was born in 1903 in Kalush, in what is now Ukraine but was then Galicia—part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The diary begins with the start of World War I, closely followed by a cholera epidemic and Regina’s flight to Vienna, where she lived as an orphan. In the 1930s Regina fled the Nazi domination of Europe for the United States, where she raised a daughter and eventually became Raab’s caregiver. When Raab was ten years old, however, Regina committed suicide—leaving Raab with a huge sense of loss and many unanswered questions. Decades later Raab’s mother presented her with the manuscript journal Regina had kept, in which she detailed her life in early twentieth-century Eastern Europe. Regina’s Closet includes “excerpts from the journal,” explained Booklist reviewer George Cohen, “offering a sensitive and penetrating image of their loving relationship.” The book, assessed an Internet Bookwatch reviewer, is “a compelling narrative account of a most remarkable woman who lived through some very harrowing and difficult times.”
Writing for Bliss
In Writing for Bliss: A Seven-step Plan for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life, Raab shows how the act of memoir-writing can be healing for authors. “Raab explains that the writing process helps us not only understand situations and events in our lives, but gives us the tools to put these events into a new and more enlightened perspective,” stated a reviewer for the Huffington Post. “It helps us remove the thorns from our psyches so we can free ourselves from the bondage of our pasts; and realize true inner peace, happiness and, ultimately, bliss.” “Themes in Writing for Bliss include helping readers to write with authenticity, emotional grounding, purpose, and the dilemma of trying to please others,” wrote Bella DePaulo in Psych Central. “Toward those ends, Raab offers chapters on self-awareness, speaking the truth, and examining one’s life. Those are steps two through four of the seven-step plan. The other steps involve finding one’s form (do you want to write memoirs, essays, journals, letters, blogs, or something else?), poetry, and sharing your writing.” “Raab points out that `if you write from your heart and write what you are passionate about, the chances of getting your work published and enjoyed by others are greater than if you write about a given subject because you think you should,'” explained Mary Ann Moore in Story Circle. “That’s good advice from someone who has found writing to be a spiritual and wellness practice.”
Critics praised Writing for Bliss. “With its hypnotic and personal stories, interviews with other authors, and many useful writing prompts,” said Angela Woltman in Foreword Reviews, “Writing for Bliss will find a valued spot on the bookshelves of those seeking greater understanding.” Those who want to find “advice on plotting or character development won’t find much here,” declared a Kirkus Reviews contributor. “But for those who hope to use writing as a way to gain a deeper understanding of themselves, Raab offers a uniquely helpful approach.” “Writing for Bliss is exceptionally well written, organized, and presented,” asserted an Internet Bookwatch reviewer, “making it … ideal and highly recommended.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, August, 2007, George Cohen, review of Regina’s Closet: Finding My Grandmother’s Secret Journal, p. 30.
Choice, July, 2010, C.R. Bloss, review of Writers and Their Notebooks, p. 2097.
Internet Bookwatch, October, 2007, review of Regina’s Closet; January, 2010, review of Writers and Their Notebooks; August, 2017, review of Writing for Bliss: A Seven-step Plan for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life.
Kirkus Reviews, September 27, 2017, review of Writing for Bliss.
Library Journal, December, 2009, Barbara M. Bibel, review of Your High-risk Pregnancy: A Practical and Supportive Guide, p. 125.
Publishers Weekly, June 19, 2017, review of Writing for Bliss, p. 102.
Reference & Research Book News, February, 2010, review of Writers and Their Notebooks.
ONLINE
Diana Raab Website, http://dianaraab.com (April 18, 2018), author profile.
Foreword Reviews, https://www.forewordreviews.com/ (September 1, 2017), Angela Woltman, review of Writing for Bliss.
Huffington Post, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ (September 5, 2017), review of Writing for Bliss.
Psych Central, https://psychcentral.com/ (April 18, 2018), Bella DePaulo, review of Writing for Bliss.
Story Circle, http://www.storycirclebookreviews/ (September 5, 2017), review of Writing for Bliss.
BIOGRAPHY
Workshops, Readings, Presentations
(Released September 2017)
Diana Raab, PhD is a memoirist, poet, essayist, blogger, and speaker. She presents workshops in writing for healing and transformation. She has a PhD in Psychology with a concentration in Transpersonal Psychology with a research focus on the healing and transformative powers of memoir writing. Her educational background also includes health administration, nursing and creative writing.
Diana has been writing since an early age. As an only child of two immigrant parents, she spent a lot of time crafting letters and chronicling her life in a journal. As an advocate of personal writing, Diana facilitates workshops in writing for transformation and empowerment, focusing on journaling, poetry and memoir writing. She believes in the importance of writing to achieve wholeness and interconnectedness while encouraging the ability to unleash the true voice of the inner self.
She’s an award-winning author of 10 books, over 1000 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. She has 4 poetry collections, including Lust.
Her new book, Writing for Bliss: A Seven-Step Plan for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life (Loving Healing Press, Sept 2017) is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Powell’s Books or wherever books are sold.
She blogs for Psychology Today, Thrive Global, Elephant Journal and many others.
Writing for Bliss: A Seven-Step Plan for
Telling Your Story and Transforming
Your Life
Publishers Weekly.
264.25 (June 19, 2017): p102.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Writing for Bliss: A Seven-Step Plan for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life
Diana Raab. Loving Healing, $21.95 (240p) ISBN 978-1-61599-324-6
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 Raabs willingness to share her intimate stories (e.g., the loss of a relative,
ongoing struggles with cancer, a difficu
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Raab, Diana M. with Errol Norwitz, M.D.
Your High-Risk Pregnancy: A Practical
and Supportive Guide
Barbara M. Bibel
Library Journal.
134.20 (Dec. 2009): p125+.
COPYRIGHT 2009 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No
redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Raab, Diana M. with Errol Norwitz, M.D. Your High-Risk Pregnancy: A Practical and Supportive Guide.
Hunter House. Jan. 2010. c.360p, illus. ISBN 978-0-89793-520-3. pap. $16.95. HEALTH
Twenty-five years ago, Raab, a nurse who has had three high-risk pregnancies, wrote the canonic Getting
Pregnant and Staying Pregnant: Overcoming Infertility and High-Risk Pregnancy. With advances in
medicine, this new edition, cowritten by Connecticut-based ob-gyn Norwitz, is most welcome. Covering the
basks of getting pregnant, prenatal care, high-risk factors, tests, bed rest, and labor and delivery, it also
discusses genetics, birth defects, pregnancy loss, and premature babies. In a supportive tone, Raab and
Norwitz guide readers through the various care options available. They also include information about
domestic violence and trauma during pregnancy; counsel pregnant women on proper seatbelt etiquette; and
provide a glossary, an extensive bibliography, and a referral list of American and Canadian support groups
and associations. VERDICT An excellent resource for readers interested in pregnancy and health, although
the journaling space at the end of each chapter may tempt patrons to write in the book.--Barbara M. Bibel,
Oakland P.L.
Bibel, Barbara M.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Bibel, Barbara M. "Raab, Diana M. with Errol Norwitz, M.D. Your High-Risk Pregnancy: A Practical and
Supportive Guide." Library Journal, Dec. 2009, p. 125+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A215108789/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7173ac22.
Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A215108789
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Regina's Closet: Finding My
Grandmother's Secret Journal
George Cohen
Booklist.
103.22 (Aug. 2007): p30.
COPYRIGHT 2007 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Regina's Closet: Finding My Grandmother's Secret Journal. By Diana M. Raab. Sept. 2007. 184p. illus.
Beaufort, $23 (0-8253-0575-6). 943.
Raab relates that this book is based on the journal her Jewish grandmother wrote in English in the late
1930s after her arrival in the U.S. The narrative begins with her childhood during World War I when she
was 11 and ends with her immigration to the U.S. Regina Klein was born in Kalush, Galicia, in 1903 and
killed herself when she was 61. Her journal describes the Austro-Hungarian invasion of Galicia in 1914, a
cholera epidemic in 1915, Regina's escape from Galicia in 1916 after her mother's death, and her life as an
orphan in Vienna. In 1997 Raab's mother gave her the journal, a transparent sheath filled with about 50
single-spaced typed pages "laden with strikeovers, awkward syntax, and numerous grammatical errors."
Raab's impressions are interspersed with excerpts from the journal, offering a sensitive and penetrating
image of their loving relationship.--George Cohen
Cohen, George
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Cohen, George. "Regina's Closet: Finding My Grandmother's Secret Journal." Booklist, Aug. 2007, p. 30.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A172380865/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8cddffc0. Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A172380865
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Writers and their notebooks
C.R. Bloss
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
47.11 (July 2010): p2097.
COPYRIGHT 2010 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
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Writers and their notebooks
Reference & Research Book News.
25.1 (Feb. 2010):
COPYRIGHT 2010 Ringgold, Inc.
http://www.ringgold.com/
Full Text:
9781570038662
Writers and their notebooks.
Ed. by Diana M. Raab.
U. of South Carolina Press
2010
203 pages
$24.95
Paperback
PS129
Raab, an essayist, memoirist, and poet who teaches in the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, collects
essays by writers on the practice of journal-keeping. Writers like Sue Grafton, Phillip Lopate, Lori Van Pelt,
John Dufresne, and Robin Hemley, who work in a variety of genres, offer advice, personal recollections,
and tips on using notebooks to document, develop, and nurture creativity, develop a writing voice, and draw
from, with some sample entries. They address such topics as using a journal in writing a private eye novel,
blogging, writing in public places, recording observations, and using a journal to deal with mental illness.
([c]2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Writers and their notebooks." Reference & Research Book News, Feb. 2010. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A224422022/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0a0080f9.
Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A224422022
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Writing For Bliss
Internet Bookwatch.
(Aug. 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Full Text:
Writing For Bliss
Diana Raab
www.dianaraab.com
Loving Healing Press
5145 Pontiac Trail, Ann Arbor, MI 48105
www.lovinghealing.com
9781615993239, $21.95, PB, 240pp, www.amazon.com
Diana Raab is an award-winning memoirist, poet, blogger, workshop leader and speaker. In "Writing for
Bliss: A Seven-Step Plan for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life" she draws upon her years of
experience and expertise to provide aspiring writers with techniques and prompts for that will lead even the
most novice writers to tap into their creativity through storytelling and poetry. "Writing for Bliss" also
examines 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.
Featuring an appendix (A List of Writing Prompts); an eight page list of References; an eight page
bibliography of Further Reading; a seven page listing of Recommended Memoirs; and a three page Index,
"Writing for Bliss" is exceptionally well written, organized and presented, making it an ideal and highly
recommended addition to personal, community, and academic library Writing/Publishing instructional
collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Writing for Bliss" is also available in a digital
book format (Kindle, $6.95).
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Writing For Bliss." Internet Bookwatch, Aug. 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A504053921/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d3ad2881.
Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A504053921
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Regina's Closet
Internet Bookwatch.
(Oct. 2007):
COPYRIGHT 2007 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Full Text:
Regina's Closet
Diana M. Raab
Beaufort Books
c/o Caroly Fass Publicity/Public Relations
26 West 17th Street, Suite 802, New York, NY 10011
9780825305757, $23.00 www.beaufortbooks.com
To a whole new generation of young adults in America, World War II is very ancient history and something
that they do not perceive as having any relevance to their lives and interests. If for that reason alone,
"Regina's Closet" by essayist, memorist and poet Diana M. Raab deserves as large a readership as possible.
The source for "Regina's Closet" is a journal kept by Diana's grandmother, plus her own memories and their
very special connection as family. It wasn't until the journal fell into Diana's hands that she learned of her
grandmother's past, starting with World War I in Poland, to the tragic death of Regina's mother, to her trials
and tribulations as an orphan, and her eventual immigration to Vienna and then on to the United States. The
entries from Regina's journal are in italic with Diana providing an illuminating commentary. The result is a
compelling narrative account of a most remarkable woman who lived through some very harrowing and
difficult times. A fascinating read from beginning to end, "Regina's Closet" is a welcome and very highly
recommended addition to community library 20th Century Biography collections.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Regina's Closet." Internet Bookwatch, Oct. 2007. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A169635659/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5f6c145a.
Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A169635659
3/24/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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Writers And Their Notebooks
Internet Bookwatch.
(Jan. 2010):
COPYRIGHT 2010 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Full Text:
Writers And Their Notebooks
Diana M. Raab, editor
University of South Carolina Press
718 Devine Street, Columbia, SC 29208
9781570038662 $24.95 www.sc.edu/uscpress 1-800-768-2500
Writers And Their Notebooks is an anthology of essays by established and professional writers, discussing
the value of simple notebooks to collect ideas, play around with words, discover new insights into evoking
emotion with language, and much more. From sample journal entries that evolved into published pieces, to
valuable advice for aspiring writers, to individual approaches to notebook keeping and much more, Writers
And Their Notebooks is filled with tips, tricks, and techniques for getting creative juices flowing. An
excellent supplementary reference for any would-be writer's shelf.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Writers And Their Notebooks." Internet Bookwatch, Jan. 2010. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A216347406/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=fd35c072.
Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A216347406
WRITING FOR BLISS
A Seven-Step Plan for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life
by Diana Raab
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KIRKUS REVIEW
An experienced author shares how to use prose to gain a better understanding of oneself in a book that’s part self-help tome, part writing manual.
Throughout her life, Raab (Healing with Words: A Writer’s Cancer Journey, 2011, etc.) turned to writing to cope with trauma. Now, she combines her knowledge of that art with her study of the mind (the author has a Ph.D. in psychology) in a book that aims to help people use words to find joy and healing. Lessons and accompanying writing prompts are designed to “inspire and teach you to learn more about yourself, tap into your emotional truth, find your authentic voice, and write about your own losses, challenges, and joys.” The process begins with tips on creating a sacred space for writing, a discussion of the mind-body connection, and an overview of meditation techniques. Then Raab moves on to advice on finding one’s voice, deciding which life stories to tell, and developing a journaling habit. (The author advocates pen-and-paper journals but asserts that “writing on a computer is better than not writing at all.”) Throughout, Raab includes anecdotes from her life, including how memoir writing helped her come to terms with her grandmother’s suicide. Most of the book is focused on working in that popular genre. The author dedicates one chapter to verse, in which she disdains formalism in favor of a confessional style that produces “more accessible poems in which there is resonance between the reader and writer.” Fiction gets short shrift, with just a few pages tacked on to the end of one chapter. She deftly tackles the tricky issue of preparing a book for publication, particularly how to communicate with family members who might be subjects of the work. Throughout, the emphasis is on writing as part of a larger process of healing or discovery. Readers looking for advice on plotting or character development won’t find much here. But for those who hope to use writing as a way to gain a deeper understanding of themselves, Raab offers a uniquely helpful approach.
A worthy, practical guide for the aspiring memoirist.
Pub Date: Sept. 1st, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-61599-323-9
Page count: 238pp
Publisher: Loving Healing Press
Program: Kirkus Indie
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27th, 2017
WRITING FOR BLISS
A SEVEN-STEP PLAN FOR TELLING YOUR STORY AND TRANSFORMING YOUR LIFE
Diana Raab
Loving Healing Press (Sep 1, 2017)
Softcover $21.95 (238pp)
978-1-61599-323-9
Though it centers on the practice of writing, this book will speak to all who value self-discovery.
Part writing guide, part memoir, and part love letter to the craft of writing, Diana Raab’s Writing for Bliss is a caring and motivational guide.
A lifelong writer, psychologist, and cancer survivor, Raab pours all of her experiences and background into this slim book, advocating for the healing powers of writing. Exploring everything from mindful breathing and meditation to personal transformation through poetry and journaling, this is a guide on how to live a more fulfilling life.
This book will speak to all who value self-discovery. It offers life-changing tips and practices to guide its audience through loss and grief, as well as through changes and joy. It will prove especially useful for those who have already developed a love of writing.
With prompts scattered throughout the book, there are many opportunities for writers to expand their talents and mine their personal experiences for material. Raab’s guidance will also prove helpful for writers who feel stuck in one genre; she advocates trying out every format, including journaling, personal essays, and poetry. Writing for Bliss does an excellent job of explaining how such practice can enhance lived experiences.
Raab’s own story plays heavily into the work, adding depth and emotion. The daughter of Jewish immigrants, she was deeply affected by her mother’s distance and by the suicide of her grandmother. Writing was her place of solace, and it continued to be a source of salvation through difficult pregnancies, two bouts with cancer, and other upheavals. Raab’s insights resonate, making each of her points more impactful.
Raab’s love of words and her belief in the power of story shine through. With its hypnotic and personal stories, interviews with other authors, and many useful writing prompts, Writing for Bliss will find a valued spot on the bookshelves of those seeking greater understanding.
Reviewed by Angela Woltman
September/October 2017
Book Review: “Writing for Bliss: A Seven-Step Plan for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life” by Diana Raab, PhD
09/05/2017 05:16 pm ET
If you have a story you’ve been wanting to tell but don’t know where to begin, Writing for Bliss: A Seven-Step Plan for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life (Loving Healing Press) is a truly inspirational work. Written by award-winning memoirist and poet Diana Raab, PhD, Writing for Bliss is an accessible and easy-to-understand guide reminding readers that they’re not alone on their path to self-discovery. By offering a wealth of writing prompts, tips, and resources, Raab inspires those in all stages of their writing journeys.
Raab’s passion for writing began more than forty years ago when her mother gave her a journal to help her cope with her grandmother’s suicide. Little did her mom realize that this gesture would serve as a platform for Raab’s life as a writer. Since then, she has chronicled her many life-changing experiences, including the loss of loved ones, raising three children, and her two bouts with cancer. Raab’s love of words and writing and her belief in the power of story shine throughout this book.
Writing for Bliss accentuates the power of storytelling as a tool leading to spiritual, physical, and mental well-being. While it’s important to write down our stories, Raab reminds us that it’s even more important to write about how our experiences made us feel or how they transformed us. The book includes sections on Writing for Change, Preparing to Write, Cultivating Self-Awareness, Speaking Your Truth, Examining Your Life, Finding Your Form, Unleashing with Poetry, Sharing Your Writing, and more.
Raab explains that the writing process helps us not only understand situations and events in our lives, but gives us the tools to put these events into a new and more enlightened perspective. It helps us remove the thorns from our psyches so we can free ourselves from the bondage of our pasts; and realize true inner peace, happiness and, ultimately, bliss.
Writing for Bliss was inspired by Raab’s doctoral dissertation, which studied the healing and transformative powers of memoir writing, and in Writing for Bliss, she shares anecdotes and interviews with esteemed writers who were a part of her research, such as Maxine Hong Kingston, Kim Stafford, and Alexandra Styron.
As Publishers Weekly says, this book targets anyone interested in writing a memoir, and one of the most compelling aspects of the book is Raab’s willingness to share her very intimate and personal stories. Doing so encourages readers to embark on their own creative voyages.
In the Preface Raab says, “Most writers will confess that they write because they have to write, not necessarily because they want to write. They write out of necessity because either it makes them feel better or they want to share their story with the world. I fall into both these categories: writing makes me feel good; when I don’t write, I feel as if something’s missing from my life, plus I also yearn to share my stories with others in the hope that they will resonate in a way that brings healing and a deeper way of knowing and understanding.
Raab shares how she wrote her first memoir, Regina’s Closet to help her accept and understand things about her grandmother, which she never knew before, and how much that empowered her. She said that her intention in creating, Writing for Bliss was to share her passion for writing and how it has helped her heal over the course of six decades. She tells her reader that she hopes the book will help the reader transcend what immediately meets the eye by encouraging them to dig deeper into their psyches, and hearing the voice of their true, authentic self, while listening to the messages of their heart, rather than suppressing them. Her intention was also to share the different ways of reflecting and self-discovery as a way to bring a sense of wholeness and, ultimately, a sense of bliss. She summarizes by saying that she hopes the readers become inspired to write during their joyous and difficult times, while also experimenting with different genres and ways of writing and being.
Writing for Bliss is an invaluable addition to any writer’s bookshelf.
Book Review: Writing for Bliss By Diana Raab
Reviewed by Bella DePaulo
~ 2 min read
Book Review: Writing for Bliss
Ever since her mother gave her a journal at age ten to help her cope with the suicide of her beloved grandmother, Diana Raab has used writing as a way of navigating life’s challenges and joys. She believes it can help you, too.
Writing for Bliss: A Seven-Step Plan for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life is rooted in the psychology of healing, spirituality, and transformation. The book is, in part, a how-to guide, but even more so it is an expression of an attitude toward writing, toward life, and toward writing for your life.
The process of writing for bliss is not always blissful. The expression “follow your bliss,” coined by Joseph Campbell, is, as Raab notes, “another way of saying to follow your heart or listen to your authentic inner voice.”
It is about “bringing into your life all those things that bring out your potential and help you live your life to its fullest,” Raab says.
Facing your fears and your traumas, and owning up to your “shadow” self that you might prefer to keep hidden, can be painful, but it can also be healing.
Raab has taught workshops on writing, and has authored memoirs and poetry. Those experiences show. For example, in her chapter on preparing to write, Raab describes rituals for writing, and how writers can find their own ways of feeling calm, confident, and ready to write.
Recurrent themes in Writing for Bliss include helping readers to write with authenticity, emotional grounding, purpose, and the dilemma of trying to please others. Toward those ends, Raab offers chapters on self-awareness, speaking the truth, and examining one’s life. Those are steps two through four of the seven-step plan. The other steps involve finding one’s form (do you want to write memoirs, essays, journals, letters, blogs, or something else?), poetry, and sharing your writing.
Writing for Bliss includes the types of advice that are familiar to those who have taken writing workshops or read other writing guides (for example, “show, don’t tell”). Raab repeatedly reminds readers of something beginners do not always realize — that one of the most important steps to becoming a good writer is to be an avid reader. Novices might not know what exactly to do with that advice, but Raab offers a wonderful resource in her long list of recommended memoirs. She also includes lists of books on writing, as well as books on writing memoirs, fiction, and poetry.
Diana Raab has a PhD in transpersonal psychology, and for her doctoral dissertation she interviewed memoirists about the processes of healing and transformation in their work. Writing for Bliss benefits from the insights Raab gleaned from those writers, as well as other authors she has met or studied.
Recounting a conversation with Mary Karr, for example, Raab noted that Karr “said that all the great memoirists she knows sound on the page like they do in person and that their voices make you feel close to them.”
The final section of the book is about making choices about where to submit your work. It is comprised of just six sentences. Most aspiring writers will be eager to learn much more than that. The claim that nonfiction writers probably won’t need an agent is not true of authors hoping to be signed by a major publishing house.
Writing for Bliss is a personal book. Readers learn a lot about Raab’s life, and how writing has helped her. A lot of it is inspiring. As a lifelong single person, though, I was disappointed by her apparent assumptions that everyone wants to marry and everyone does marry. For example, she tells the story of how she kept journals of the questions posed by each of her children during the first ten years of their lives, “vowing to share each one’s journal with them on their wedding day.” So if they didn’t want to marry, or did want to marry but never found a suitable partner, they don’t get their journal?
That sort of issue, though, is hardly specific to this author. It is part of the uncontested ideology of our time. In just about every other way, Writing for Bliss is a valuable addition to the literature on writing the story of your life.
Writing for Bliss: A Seven-Step Plan for Telling Your Story and Transforming Your Life
Diana Raab
Loving Healing Press
September 2017
Paperback, 218 pages
Writing for Bliss:
A Seven-Step Plan for Telling Your Story
and Transforming Your Life
by Diana Raab
Loving Healing Press, 2017. ISBN 978-1-615-99323-9.
Reviewed by Mary Ann Moore
Posted on 09/05/2017
Nonfiction: Creative Life
(click on book cover or title to buy from amazon.com)
Diana Raab quotes Joseph Campbell in the preface to Writing for Bliss: "If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living."
In the introduction, Raab points out that "bliss" is "about learning what brings you joy, which is often connected to what you were meant to do with your life—your calling." Another way of following your bliss she says is to "follow your heart or to listen to your authentic inner voice" which she describes in more detail in the third step entitled "Speaking Your Truth."
Raab began writing in a journal when she was ten years old to help her deal with the suicide of her grandmother who had been her caretaker in her childhood home. Her grandmother had also been a journal keeper and it was Raab's mother who bought a red leather journal for her daughter so she could write what she was going through. Raab realized that writing about her grandmother was healing "as it allowed me to honor her and keep her alive, and it was also a way to come to some resolution about her suicide."
Raab continued to appreciate the healing effects of writing and the subject of her dissertation research was "the healing and transformative powers of personal narrative." She includes references to many writers including the ones she interviewed: Maxine Hong Kingston, Alexandra Styron, Kim Stafford, Monika Wesolowska and Mark Matousek.
Each chapter has writing prompts with additional prompts in the appendix. Whether or not readers will go on to publish their work, they will benefit from the many suggestions Raab offers such as "Creating a Sacred Space" and various techniques such as Mindfulness Meditation that that can help people with their own sense of self-awareness.
In Step Four "Examining Your Life," Raab says that writing "also helps me discover meaning and find a container for my experiences. Writing as a spiritual practice is very liberating and satisfying." With the guidance Raab offers, readers will have an opportunity to explore and perhaps realize, the gifts that introspection can bring. As Raab says: "Writing your story activates the narrating part of your mind and thus can increase your sense of well-being, whether you share your writing with others or not."
In Step Five, "Finding Your Form," Raab describes various types of journals one can keep as well as essay writing, blogging, memoir and fiction writing.
As "poetry is the voice of the soul," Raab says, she has included "Unleashing with Poetry" as step six.
Raab's hope is that readers will become inspired to write "during their joyous and difficult times, while also experimenting with different genres and ways of writing and being."
In the final chapter "Sharing Your Writing," Raab says that when she began sharing her story she felt the intensity of her loss "and I began to integrate it into my life."
Tips on "Revising and Editing" are included as well as advice about "Showing Drafts to Others. Under the heading of "Publishing Basics," Raab points out that "if you write from your heart and write what you are passionate about, the chances of getting your work published and enjoyed by others are greater than if you write about a given subject because you think you should."
That's good advice from someone who has found writing to be a spiritual and wellness practice and led to the publishing of her work to inspire others. Many will benefit from the wisdom and encouragement Diana Raab shares in Writing for Bliss.
Diana Raab, PhD, is an award-winning memoirist, poet, blogger, workshop facilitator, thought provoker, and survivor. She's the author of eight books and over one thousand articles and poems. She lives in Southern California. Visit her website.