Sitting down to write a book
Discover the essential books to help you sit down and write your book. Explore curated guides by John W. Gardner, Dorothea Brande, and more to overcome writer's block and become a novelist.
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On Becoming a Novelist
by John W Gardner
"One of the greatest creative writing teachers we've ever had." —Frederick Busch 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. "A miraculously detailed account of the creative process."—Anne Tyler, Baltimore Sun
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Becoming a Writer
by Dorothea Brande
A reissue of a classic work published in 1934 on writing and the creative process, Becoming a Writer recaptures the excitement of Dorothea Brande's creative writing classroom of the 1920s. Decades before brain research "discovered" the role of the right and left brain in all human endeavor, Dorothea Brande was teaching students how to see again, how to hold their minds still, and how to call forth the inner writer.
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The Observation Deck
by Naomi Epel
"Offers inspiration and practical advice from today's greatest writers ... secrets to approaching work with renewed creativity --Container.
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On Writer's Block
by Victoria Nelson
"Creative blocks are as old as the written word and a source of guilt and frustration that have afflicted the lives of many of the greatest writers and artists. Yet such mysterious creative silences need not be feared. Rather, argues Victoria Nelson, they should be viewed as a positive element in a writer's or artist's growth, the unconscious mind's signal to readjust the approach to a work in progress. By defining the true nature of this condition and developing an understanding of its varied origins, the author shows writers and artists how to reestablish contact with their creative selves."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
