Rating: 
Summary: Not Exactly a 'Writing Book'
Review: If you want Gardner's opinion on plot, characterization, symbolism, tone, and the like, try his 'Art of Fiction' (which is also very good.) This book deals more with the non-literary aspects of the writing lifestyle. It answers questions like "How do I know if I have what it takes to be a novelist?" "Should I get an MFA?" "What about writer's conferences? Are they any good?" "How do I deal with editors and agents?"... and so forth. Gardner reveals many of the same prejudices as in 'Art of Fiction', but he is man enough to admit readily that they are just preferences. His target audience is Joseph Heller, not Dean Koontz or Nora Ephron. Nevertheless much of his advice can be valuable to any young writer.
Rating:
Summary: Buy this book
Review: If you want to start writing fiction, or improve what you're already writing, then buy this book. There's really nothing more to say. Gardner's slim volume is worth twenty tomes on archetypes and story structures and channeling your inner child. Those things are important, but for the most part they can take care of themselves. The strength of Gardner's approach is that he gets straight down to the serious business of putting words on the page and figuring out if you're the kind of person who's good at it. Drawing examples from his own writing and experience as a teacher, he describes what he sees as the "writer's nature" (verbal facility, accuracy of vision, a particular kind of intelligence, and a daemonic compulsiveness), gives some blunt observations on the usefulness (or otherwise) of creative writing workshops, some helpful pointers on editors and publishing, and a nice final chapter on creative faith. My only reservation is that he comes down quite heavily on the side of realism. "Good writers may 'tell' almost anything in fiction except the characters' feelings," he maintains (p.33). Certainly, a lot of bad writing is bad because it "tells" rather than "shows", but I think one of the great beauties and values of fiction is precisely that it can take us inside the minds characters and make legible what they are REFUSING to show. Ironically, this often provides a much greater fidelity to 'real life' than the strikingly un-lifelike practice of levering arcane metaphors into place to represent, externally, a character's mental or emotional experience. If prose fiction isn't allowed to recount a character's inner life, then what value does it have over film and television - two forms which Gardner seems to decry? Still, Gardner's advice is generous and convincing, yet never totalising. You get the distinct impression that if you totally disagreed with everything he said, and yet still wrote good fiction, he'd be nothing less than delighted for you. Now that's a good teacher.
Rating:
Summary: Buy this book
Review: If you want to start writing fiction, or improve what you're already writing, then buy this book. There's really nothing more to say. Gardner's slim volume is worth twenty tomes on archetypes and story structures and channeling your inner child. Those things are important, but for the most part they can take care of themselves. The strength of Gardner's approach is that he gets straight down to the serious business of putting words on the page and figuring out if you're the kind of person who's good at it. Drawing examples from his own writing and experience as a teacher, he describes what he sees as the "writer's nature" (verbal facility, accuracy of vision, a particular kind of intelligence, and a daemonic compulsiveness), gives some blunt observations on the usefulness (or otherwise) of creative writing workshops, some helpful pointers on editors and publishing, and a nice final chapter on creative faith. My only reservation is that he comes down quite heavily on the side of realism. "Good writers may 'tell' almost anything in fiction except the characters' feelings," he maintains (p.33). Certainly, a lot of bad writing is bad because it "tells" rather than "shows", but I think one of the great beauties and values of fiction is precisely that it can take us inside the minds characters and make legible what they are REFUSING to show. Ironically, this often provides a much greater fidelity to 'real life' than the strikingly un-lifelike practice of levering arcane symbols into place to represent, externally, a character's mental or emotional experience. If prose fiction isn't allowed to recount a character's inner life, then what value does it have over film and television - two forms which Gardner seems to decry? Still, Gardner's advice is generous and convincing, yet never totalising. You get the distinct impression that if you totally disagreed with everything he said, and yet still wrote good fiction, he'd be nothing less than delighted for you. Now that's a good teacher.
Rating:
Summary: If there's a better book on writing, I'd like to see it
Review: More accessible than Gardner's own The Art of Fiction, more sophisticated than Bird by Bird, more nourishing than most novels, this is the best book on writing since Aspects of the Novel. And someone should really think about republishing Gardner's fiction!
Rating:
Summary: Learn from the best
Review: There are lots of books out there on the mechanics of writing a novel. There are others that give you plot outlines, character sketches, or tell you how hard, hard, hard, or easy, easy, easy it is to build a career in writing.
Gardner, on the other hand, simply tells you how it is- at least from his point of view, and he makes it clear throughout that his advice to young writers is only one wall of the pigpen. The most refreshing aspect of this book is that it is geared to the "serious" novelist- i.e. someone who doesn't want to write books based on formulas or what sells, but just wants to write what they want to write. Gardner doesn't lie about the slim possibilities of making a living as a novelist, but he does give solid advice on how to make money without your job interfering with your work.
Though it was written more than twenty years ago, this book is still valuable today for the beginning writer- I'll keep it on my shelf for many years to come.
Rating:
Summary: Essential Reading
Review: This is the classic work on becoming a novelist that should be required reading for any aspiring author of fiction. Gardner does not go into specific craft techniques in this book, but his detailed discussions on the writing process, dealing with publishers, and overcoming rejection are essential reading. The foreword to this book, written by Raymond Carver, is 8 pages long and is very good-almost worth the price of the book itself. Gardner states in his preface, page xxiii, "I try here to deal with, and if possible get rid of, the beginning novelist's worries." No single book can discuss everything a writer worries about, but Gardner does a good job covering the main points. Gardner does not focus on any particular genre in this book, and in fact, genre writers may be a bit frustrated by his focus on the mainstream novel, and writing for the sake of art, over commercialism. However, his ideas are worth looking at by all of us.
Similar books which I would recommend for the aspiring writer include: "The Writer's Book of Hope," by Ralph Keyes, and "The Forest for the Trees," by Betsy Lerner.
Ron Atkins is the author of two children's books, Abby and the Bicycle Caper, and his upcoming (January 2005) Abby and the Bike Race Mystery.
Rating:
Summary: Who Is Jane Steinberg?
Review: To bad Steinberg's vacuous personality prevents her from recognizing how childish and trashy her mind is. She is as subtle as a stripper with $ bills wedged into her g-string, to apply MS. Steinbergs overuse of tired metaphor to her own review. Playing with HTML and animated GIFS is less challenging, I'm sure she excels at it.
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