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| On Becoming a Novelist | 
| Author: John Gardner
Creator: Raymond Carver
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $8.34
You Save: $6.61 (44%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 90185
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 150
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 0393320030
Dewey Decimal Number: 031
EAN: 9780393320039
ASIN: 0393320030
Publication Date: October 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Picture the poor, young, serious-fiction writer. He toils alone at a pace not so different from that of Lincoln Tunnel traffic at rush hour in New York. His spouse has a "real" job, or perhaps he has a trust fund. His college friends are cashing in on their dot-coms and wondering if he's ever going to join the real world. He is not hell-bent on publication; he is trying to write "serious, honest fiction, the kind of novel that readers will find they enjoy reading more than once, the kind of fiction likely to survive." He's likely to have no idea whether he's succeeding. Nobody understands him. Well, almost nobody. John Gardner understands him. Gardner's sympathetic On Becoming a Novelist is the novelist's ultimate comfort food--better than macaroni and cheese, better than chocolate. Gardner, a fiction writer himself (Grendel), knows in his bones the desperate questioning of a writer who's not sure he's up to the task. He recognizes the validation that comes with being published, just as he believes that "for a true novel there is generally no substitute for slow, slow baking." Gardner also has strong feelings about what kinds of workshops help (and whom they help), and what kinds hinder. But a full half of Gardner's book is devoted to an exploration of the writer's nature. The storyteller's intelligence, he says, "is composed of several qualities, most of which, in normal people, are signs of either immaturity or incivility." In addition, a writer needs "verbal sensitivity, accuracy of eye," and "an almost demonic compulsiveness." But wait--there's more. A writer needs to be driven, and to be driven, he says insightfully, "a psychological wound is helpful." --Jane Steinberg
Product Description
On Becoming a Novelist contains the wisdom accumulated during John Gardner's distinguished twenty-year career as a fiction writer and creative writing teacher. With elegance, humor, and sophistication, Gardner describes the life of a working novelist; warns what needs to be guarded against, both from within the writer and from without; and predicts what the writer can reasonably expect and what, in general, he or she cannot. "For a certain kind of person," Gardner writes, "nothing is more joyful or satisfying than the life of a novelist." But no other vocation, he is quick to add, is so fraught with professional and spiritual difficulties. Whether discussing the supposed value of writer's workshops, explaining the role of the novelist's agent and editor, or railing against the seductive fruits of literary elitism, On Becoming a Novelist is an indispensable, life-affirming handbook for anyone authentically called to the profession.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 A lot of common sense, not necessarily what I expected. July 23, 2008
For aspiring writers wanting to get some heavy insight into the steps, practices, discipline and a "how-to" look into becoming a Novelist, you may want to look elsewhere.
While "On Becoming a Novelist" is a decent read, I found the content somewhat disengaging making the book, overall, hard pressed to keep my attention.
 The One Book Novelists Need to Read June 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Gardner's "Becoming a Novelist" is a career advice book for authors who are serious about writing novels. (Short story writers need not apply.) John Gardner was not a man to pull his punches, so expect brutal honesty--especially regarding his dim views of most science-fiction, horror, and other genre writing. While I can't say that I agree with every word that he wrote, "Becoming a Novelist" provides more food for thought for aspiring novelists than a dozen "how-to" writing books. It's short enough to read in an afternoon--and, believe me, I've read it many times on many afternoons when I needed a good life coach to help me with my writing.
Concise, Sympathetic, Sage Advice for the Aspiring Novelist May 7, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I first read On Becoming A Novelist in 1989. I thought a lot of the 145-page book at the time, but then steered clear of trying to write for a living and instead embarked on a fruitful fifteen year career as a self-employed software developer (creative writing of a sort, probably close to a million lines of code altogether, in the language of Visual Basic). As for whether I would have been happier and better off financially if I had eschewed software development for novel writing back in 1989, I will never know.
Fast forward to 2008: my software development business wound down about a year ago, which was fine with me because I was eager for a change. Since 2004, and since 2006 in earnest, I have been working on my first novel. As of a month ago the novel consisted of 330 pages, was 90 percent finished content-wise, and I have completed my seventh round of editing. Having said all this, a month ago I decided that I was not satisfied with the manuscript. My gut told me that I could do a lot better, and I decided to dust off and re-read On Becoming A Novelist to try and clarify what my gut was telling me.
Gardner, as an accomplished writer himself, understood the trials and tribulations of the writer... her ups and downs, hopes and fears, joys and frustrations. Gardner did not try to provide `one size fits all' ways to approach writing a novel; he understood that among writers there are differing motivations, desires and styles. On the other hand, Gardner provided advice based on his experience behind the typewriter and in the industry, as his readers would want and expect:
A novelist is best advised to have a plan for his novel, all the while recognizing that "the most careful plan in the world won't actually work." To not have a plan will likely lead to confusion and time wasting.
Common standards for good fiction: "creation of a vivid and continuous dream, authorial generosity, intellectual and emotional significance, elegance and efficiency, and strangeness."
Personal traits such as childishness, stubbornness and mischievousness can serve a novelist well.
"... Language inevitably carries values with it, and unexamined language carries values one might, if one knew they were there, be ashamed of accidentally promoting."
The novelist needs to train herself to see what is really there to be seen, if she does not have this natural gift to start with.
"The person profoundly in love with words... will probably not in the end prove a first-rate novelist."
This advice, and Gardner's other perspectives and ideas, mean a lot more to me now, with a nearly finished (however unsatisfactory) novel under my belt, than it did in 1989. I hope that the benefit I will get from having recently re-read Gardner's book is that, as I revise (if not re-write) my novel, I will apply his principles to the overall structure of my work, as well as to character development, setting and plot evolution.
I am persuaded that by heeding the guidance one finds in this book, the novelist improves his chances for success. There is no baloney here, just the truth about the novel writing business, as Gardner understood it. I am humbled that Gardner acquired the wisdom and experience that he did in his short life; he died in 1982 at age 49, two years younger than I am as I struggle to get one novel written.
I give this book ten stars out of ten.
Every writer should read this book June 20, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I first read Gardner's "The Art of Fiction" some years ago. It was a fine book with some sound advice. However, it read too much like a how-to book for my tastes. And the how-to advice seemed a bit too formulaic. Though I am sure it is a fine book for instruction, especially for people who are just starting to look at fiction seriously.
"On Becoming a Novelist" is a different book all together. It deals more with the philosophy and life of writing. It is simply a joy to read. It does not tell you how to write, but instead it addresses, in a very direct way, whether or not you should write.
The forward by Raymond Carver is a good essay in itself. Should I ever find myself in a position to teach writing on any serious level, I will use this book. I wish I had read it sooner.
One of the things I appreciate is the way the book speaks to the seriousness of writing. Now I understand that people write for different reasons, and as a teacher I encourage my students to write and stress the importance of writing in all areas of life. And we often have teacher trainings that encourage teachers to write. Many of my colleagues consider themselves writers. Some even go so far as to say that they "could not live without writing." There are all sorts of writers. But it is the sort of writer that Gardner speaks to is the sort that I wish to become.
Gardner's writer is not a seer. He is not a celebrity. He is a practitioner, a tradesman. And to compare Gardner's writer to most day to day writers is to compare the full time furniture maker to the guy who builds picnic tables out of 2x4s. And of course we need picnic tables.
 Every aspiring writer should read this February 1, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
If you're planning on becoming a novelist rather than just writing a novel - and I do believe there's a difference - you must pick up this book. It's 145 pages dedicated to the most common question aspiring writers have:
"Do I have what it takes to be a writer?"
Of course this question doesn't have an easy answer, but John Gardner uses his years of experience as both a writer and teacher and throws in his two cents. The book is divided into four sections:
1. The Writer's Nature. The longest section - it's about half the book. Think of it as a field guide to writers. My one gripe about this is that at times, it's a little too stereotypical - he suggests that if you have a screwed up childhood, you'll make a good writer. I don't agree with this at all, although, looking at the recent slew of trash memoirs, I suppose it's a bit prophetic.
2. The Writer's Training and Education. This covers writing workshops, why they're worth going and how to spot a good one; the benefits and drawbacks to majoring in English or creative writing; what you're going to have do to support yourself so you can write. (Among his suggestions: marry rich.)
3. Publication and Survival. This section does a very competent job explaining the entire publication process, from submission to copyediting to receiving a physical copy of your book. Because the book was written in 1983, a lot of it is twenty years out of date. One of his suggestions is to walk into an editor's office with a copy of your manuscript. I don't think you could get away with that anymore. Even if you managed to get into their office, you'd probably get escorted out of the building.
4. Faith. Maybe the most important part of the book. It reveals the cure for writer's block - writing - and how to keep believing in yourself in the face of countless rejection letters or slow writing or a lack of support.
I can honestly say that I now have a much better grasp on what it's going to take to become a professional writer. Although Gardner can be a pretentious blowhard from time to time, and some of the advice doesn't sound quite right for today, this is probably the best book of its kind out there.
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