Customer Reviews

Letters to a Fiction Writer

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Frederick Busch's collection of letters is masterfully conceived and edited. This book should be required reading for anyone who has ever considered writing fiction (as well as for anyone who has ever pondered the degree of self and soul that go into creative writing). The insights into the process of such writing are most illuminating, rather like holding a rare diamond up to the light and being struck by its varied points of brilliance as one turns it from one angle to another.

After about two decades of writing and teaching, I have an awful lot of writing books. Some books are wonderful straightforward textbooks (like Janet Burroway's Writing Fiction), others are brilliant collections of essays on the art and craft of writing, like Charles Baxter's Burning Down the House or Charles Baxter and Peter Turchi's Bringing the Devil to His Knees or the Julie Checkoway-edited Creating Fiction.

But sometimes what we need are books that amuse, comfort, guide, and inspire us, like Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird or Chekhov's letters or Frederick Busch's collection, Letters to a Fiction Writer. Different writers will respond to different essays in here, but there are some that are among the most honest and helpful pieces imaginable. This is one of the books on my shelf that I consider essential.

While there is some good, specific advice, most of the advice boils down to this:

1. Read a lot
2. Write a lot
3. Don't become a writer, because if you do you'll work in isolation, won't be able to make a living and no one will read your work.

Many of the letters seemed self-conscious to me, and I found myself saying, look, I know you're a writer, but please don't try to impress me with your carefully crafted wisdom. The best IMHO were those written privately, with palpable passion (John Gardner, Shelby Foote, a couple more.) This is not to say the other writers are or were not passionate about their work, but I couldn't feel it here.

Some of the good advice:
1. Stop in the middle of a sentence when you know what is going to happen next.
2. Go against the grain. Add bad characteristics to your good characters, good characteristics to your bad.
3. Avoid cynicism.

For those of you interested in hearing more from published writers, find Don Swaim's library of interviews online. That's a whole college education there.

I thought that this book had a rather cool premise. In it, a bunch of random letters from famous authors to aspiring authors were found and published. As could be imagined, the quality varies greatly. Some are pretty much useless, some are full of interesting advice. Some advice is overly general, some too specific (and applicable only to the letter writer). I wish that the editor had better culled the letters to remove some of the ones that meander, discuss stuff that's too personal to be interesting to a random reader, etc. But there's at least some good advice to be found here.

I'd probably recommend skimming, not buying this book. (Unless you're really into one of the listed authors and desperately want to know what he/she said about writing.)

I pick this gem up again and again. Yes, this book does contain some lovely writing and some wonderful words on writing. For me, the value is that the letters feel like they were written to me by a friend. It reminds of why I write and that I'm not alone with what I struggle through every day that I continue down this path.

My wife gave this book to me when we were first engaged. I was (and still am) writing an epic fantasy novel and I had never gotten any advice on writing. This book was my first. Believe me it felt like my first. I didn't know myself or why the heck I was writing anything at all until I read this book. All the authors in here have great advice and inspiration for young (and by young we mean aspiring and new) writers. I discovered some very important things about myself by reading this book. It helped covince me to seek out other forms of instruction, read other good fiction novels and really immerse myself in the art and practice of writing.

The best book on writing fiction since Anne LaMott's Bird by Bird