December’s Book Club pick is On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner.
I’ve decided to add some variety to the Book Club with nonfiction. I’ve had this book on my shelf for a few years now. It was recommended to be by my first creative writing professor. So, I figured it was about time I cracked it open.
This book will probably be most interesting to writers, but behind good writing advice is great life advice. Plus, the forward is by Raymond Carver.
From the back of the book:
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.
Let me know if you’re joining this month’s book club.
Next month is the new year! Ah! Have a book you think would be good for January’s Book Club? Lemme know.
Memoir of a Writer 
I don’t know…This isn’t like Steven King’s On Writing, is it lol??? I read a bit in that about weeds of dandelion adverbs seeding a novel to unreadability… But, not to take anything from King, I also read another place to break all the rules and just write. Write as if you are talking out or relating a story to a friend and everything usually will just fall right into place. Not to make a book that is just one big broken rule, mind you, but just write without, or at least with less, fear.
I’ll check it out though. You can never get too much good advice and just weed out the dandelions. 😀
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Lol I haven’t read King’s! This ones pretty slim and I’ve heard really good things about it.
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I haven’t read this and I have a big stack of books to get through for review, so no, I won’t join, but I will put this one on my TBR list and will look forward to hear what you have to say about it in a future post. Thanks for the post.
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No worries! I’ve heard great things about this one and it’s relatively slim.
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Gardner is as interested in the character of the novelist as he is the technical details of getting it done. He can seem too strict at times, but this is, at heart, a generous book. I give it away to my favorite young writing students.
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Thanks for the insight. I’m exited to read it!
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Sorry, I already started “outlander” by Diana Gabaldon. After that I need to read Othello, because my son is reading it for school
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