At my friend Brian’s recommendation, I read John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers. The book is about writing fiction, but what Gardner says can be applied to the writing of anything from a blog post to a scholarly article to a non-fiction book or even to a sermon. William McPherson’s blurb on the back cover is spot on:
“He lays out virtually everything a person might want to know [about] how to say it , with good and bad examples and judgments falling like autumn leaves in a November storm.”
One of the things I appreciate about this book is that Gardner isn’t messing around:
“What is said here, whatever use it may be to others, is said for the elite; that is, for serious literary artists” (x).
I don’t want to pile up all my favorite quotes from this book in one post, so you can expect more autumn leaves from John Gardner this spring.
One of my favorites on the subject and easily one of the most canonical works on the art of writing. I can’t wait to see what quotes stuck out for you the most.
I’m a huge Gardner fan. He also wrote a fantastic book called On Becoming a Novelist. You should check that one out as well. He was a troubled soul, but his work habits were herculean and his writing is some of the best I’ve read.