

A miraculously detailed account of the creative process. 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. But no other vocation, he is quick to add, is so fraught with professional and spiritual difficulties. In this essential guide, John Gardner advises the aspiring fiction author on such topics as the value of creative writing workshops, the developmental stages of. For a certain kind of person, Gardner writes, nothing is more joyful or satisfying than the life of a novelist. 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.

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.
