Advice to Writers: A Compendium of Quotes, Anecdotes, and Writerly Wisdom from a Dazzling Array of Literary Lights [Paperback]

Jon Winokur (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 9, 2000

In Advice to Writers, Jon Winokur, author of the bestselling The Portable Curmudgeon, gathers the counsel of more than four hundred celebrated authors in a treasury on the world of writing. Here are literary lions on everything from the passive voice to promotion and publicity: James Baldwin on the practiced illusion of effortless prose, Isaac Asimov on the despotic tendencies of editors, John Cheever on the perils of drink, Ivan Turgenev on matrimony and the Muse. Here, too, are the secrets behind the sleight-of-hand practiced by artists from Aristotle to Rita Mae Brown. Sagacious, inspiring, and entertaining, Advice to Writers is an essential volume for the writer in every reader.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"The only way to write is well and how you do it is your own damn business." --A.J. Liebling

There are at least as many theories about writing as there are writers to expound them. In Advice to Writers Jon Winokur has collected some of the best bons mots ever penned on the literary life. In chapters covering such diverse topics as agents, publishers, critics, and process, Winokur lets writers speak for themselves--and often the advice is contradictory: "The professional guts a book through--in full knowledge that what he is doing is not very good. Not to work is to exhibit a failure of nerve," John Gregory Dunne opines. "It would be wisest not to worry too much about the sterile periods. They ventilate the subject and instill into it the reality of daily life," André Gide ripostes. There is advice on grammar and style, on dialogue, plot, and character, and also on topics such as occupational hazards and drink (surely a subset of those hazards). "Write first, drink later," Patrick McGrath suggests. "To write you must be warm, fed, loved and sober." (Poet and essayist Philip Larkin, on the other hand, advises, "Get stewed: Books are a load of crap.")

Novices looking for practical information on the nuts and bolts of the business may not find it here. On the other hand, advice from the likes of David Remnick, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Toni Morrison, Maxwell Perkins, Isaac Asimov, Samuel Johnson, Calvin Trillin, P.D. James, and many, many other professional scribes can serve to inspire. At the very least, this potpourri of words to the wise will keep the incipient writer amused between drafts. --Alix Wilber --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Best advice I've ever received: Finish."  --Peter Mayle

"Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke."  --F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Make your characters want something right away even if it's only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time."  --Kurt Vonnegut

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (May 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679763414
• ISBN-13: 978-0679763413
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #516,090 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jon Winokur is the author of two dozen nonfiction books, including The Portable Curmudgeon (NAL, 1987) and its four sequels; Zen to Go (NAL, 1988 and Sasquatch, 2005); Advice to Writers (Pantheon, 1999); The Big Book of Irony (St. Martin's, 2007) and the critically acclaimed New York Times National Bestseller The Garner Files: A Memoir, co-authored with James Garner (Simon & Schuster, 2011). Winokur maintains the popular AdviceToWriters.com and @AdviceToWriters Twitter feed. He lives in Los Angeles.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BEST BOOK ON THE SUBJECT June 24, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Advice to Writers is Jon Winokur's finest book -- and that's saying something. Its already pulled me out of writer's block several times. I mean, its not exactly a self-help book, but the damn thing WORKS.

As a writer who suffers from chronic indolence, I'm keeping this book on my bedside table (since I'm indolent I work in bed) -- it makes me WANT to write.

Practical usage aside, its big fun, too. No one else has Winokur's delicious eye for quotes and their juxtapositions. This lovely book is caviar; all other "advice to writer" books are neurasthenic by comparison.

Bravo, Mr. Winokur, and thank you! When's the next one?

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Writers on Writing October 6, 2000

By Dan Poynter VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Winokur has gathered advice on writing from more than 400 bibliophiles and categorized their recommendations into 36 sections. Most entries are short quotations. (For categories, click on Table of Contents in the left-hand column of this page.) Writers will love turning to the sections on agents, occupational hazards or punctuation to see what writers and other bookpeople have said about them.

Jon Winokur is an author and bibliophile who obviously loves his work.

As the author of 113 books (including revisions and foreign-language editions) and over 500 magazine articles, I recommend this book to writers. [e-mail].

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars educational December 30, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

The book is a delightful mix of thoughtful, irreverent, cynical and joyful quotes, interspersed with occasional brief advice that is specific enough to be helpful. Well done!