Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing: A Novelist Looks at His Craft - Softcover

Morrell, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1582972702 ISBN 13: 9781582972701

Publisher: Writers Digest Books, 2003

Synopsis

The best-selling novelist provides an insider's glimpse of the art of writing that traces the diverse steps in the process of creating a novel or story, from initial idea, through the research process, to the finished product, and offers helpful advice on how to get published, the business of writing, and more. Original. 10,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

Distinctions are often made between writers of "literature" and writers of popular fiction. The two seem to come together in David Morrell, author of Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing. Morrell writes thrillers--lots of them--including First Blood, which gave the world Rambo. But Morrell was also a longtime literature professor. He is as likely to quote E.M. Forster as he is Lawrence Block; Steve McQueen appears on the same page as Henry James. Lessons is a lovely examination of writing and the writing life. To read it is to put oneself in the company of a writerly raconteur. Toward the beginning of the book, he discusses Hemingway's bizarre upbringing, wartime experiences, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Toward the end, he reveals the secret to bribing the dispatchers and drivers who supply airport bookstores (a hint rarely, if ever before, reported in a writing book). With chapters devoted to plot, character, research, structure, viewpoint, and dialogue, Morrell covers all the basics. But this is less a how-to book than a written rendition of an intimate university writing workshop. "There are no inferior types of fiction," Morrell implores, "only inferior practitioners of them." --Jane Steinberg

About the Author:

David Morrell is the author of six New York Times best-sellers. His 15 novels have sold tens of millions of copies worldwide and have been translated into twenty-two languages. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

About this edition

• Publisher: Writers Digest Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1582972702
• ISBN 13: 9781582972701
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256