Dancing on the Head of a Pen, by Robert Benson

A pastor who has a story to tell about the renewal of her congregation wrote to me recently, “I know there is a book in me. I feel deeply called to write. I also feel totally overwhelmed when writing.”

I know how she feels. When I wanted to write my story about spiritual direction, I too felt overwhelmed. I’d been reading Robert Benson’s short memoirs for a few years and loving the way he tells stories from his own life to illumine the life of prayer. That was what I wanted to do. So I wrote on a Post-it note, “You Can Do This,” stuck the note on Benson’s memoir Digging In, and placed it on the desk where I write.

With the publication of Dancing on the Head of a Pen, Benson has become more than an inspiration; he is a guide to people like my pastor friend who don’t know how to get from the blank page to a pile of pages called a book. “After some forty years and twenty books, I have learned I do not know a lot about a lot of things, but I do know how to write a book.” Here he shares what he knows.