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A review by tacomandandysavage
The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers by John Gardner
3.0
John Gardner's posthumous "Art of Fiction" contains insights on important subjects for aspiring fiction writers to think about. Vital, even. I've never been more vigilant about the efficacy of verb forms, or the rhythm of prose, then after reading his thoughts on those topics.
And yet.
The book comes in at 206 pages, and maybe 20 of those contained useful information. The remainder felt like a never-ending, disorganized stream of asides, biases and humble-brags. Reading this was not unlike the experience of seeking out, say, the password for the office computer system from a coworker and finding oneself stuck in an unwelcome monologue about their morning jog, the eggs they had for breakfast, the quality of their commute, and their opinion on the City Council's latest ordinance on road maintenance. They know you need the information, therefore they know you'll put up with the inconvenience.
Read it. Internalize it. Don't take every word as law. This is a man who spent most of the time he could have spent writing either drinking, or trading in his wives for newer models.
His worst sin, in my opinion, was his belief that it's emotionally manipulative to take full advantage of paragraph breaks. Because it's cheating to use a basic composition tool in a way he didn't prefer. Obviously.
And yet.
The book comes in at 206 pages, and maybe 20 of those contained useful information. The remainder felt like a never-ending, disorganized stream of asides, biases and humble-brags. Reading this was not unlike the experience of seeking out, say, the password for the office computer system from a coworker and finding oneself stuck in an unwelcome monologue about their morning jog, the eggs they had for breakfast, the quality of their commute, and their opinion on the City Council's latest ordinance on road maintenance. They know you need the information, therefore they know you'll put up with the inconvenience.
Read it. Internalize it. Don't take every word as law. This is a man who spent most of the time he could have spent writing either drinking, or trading in his wives for newer models.
His worst sin, in my opinion, was his belief that it's emotionally manipulative to take full advantage of paragraph breaks. Because it's cheating to use a basic composition tool in a way he didn't prefer. Obviously.