Customer Reviews

The Writer's Mentor: Secrets of Success from the World's Great Writers

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I expected this to be simply a compendium of quotes about writing, but it's actually a clear and well-thought-out book full of advice and inspiration for anyone who writes -- or aspires to write.

From philosophical points about writing to nitty-gritty how-to details for all genres, I found this useful and fascinating, not to mention entertaining. I especially enjoyed the chapter on "Publishers and Publishing."

The book is shaped very well, but also populated with what you'd have to call "intimate" revelations by famous writers (and editors) about writing. If you could have a drink with Yeats or Stephen King (or the poetry editor of the New Yorker or a literary agent), this is what you'd get.

With his usual good humor, insight and wit, Jackman serves as an able guide through the writing and publishing process and his own experience of it. Experienced writers and strivers alike will find much to enjoy in this volume. I particularly liked how the author draws on his encyclopedic knowledge of writers biographies in illustrating his points. Keep this book with your dictionary and thesaurus.

If you're looking for a collection of things to put on sticky-notes over your desk, this is it. Unfortunately, if you actually want some advice and to learn to write better, this is not the book to pick.

Mainly, it's quite a lot of quotes from famous and semi-famous authors on writing. All very well and good in moderation, but a whole bleeding book on this is just a tad bit much. Not the sort of thing one wants to read all the way through-- and after a while, it's not the thing you want to read at all.

One of the things is, it attempts to cover too many subjects. It covers, I think, play-writing, screenwriting, poems, short stories, and novels. This just was madly over-ambitious, as there are entire books on each subject. Thus, the advice is vauge, unspecific, repetitive, and nothing new or enlightening at all.

The 'author', who really did little actual writing for thing book-- he admits this in a sluggish introduction-- often contradicts himself and, in an effort to include the most quotes in the book never includes his own opinion. How can one write a book on writing and manage to do this? The other writing books I've come across are mostly lumps of opinion, and this book felt weak for the lack of it. Like it was trying to be inoffensive.

Don't bother spending the money on this, I would say. Subscribe to Writers' Digest instead, or buy Anne Lammott's Bird by Bird-- those are more than vauge ramblings on the craft, and worth the money. I'm glad this is only a library book.

Mr. Jackman's The Writer's Mentor is extraordinarily helpful for anyone who needs a bit of push to get words onto paper, but more than that it is an absolute delight to read. It is wonderfully entertaining and informative. Anyone who enjoys any aspect of language, literature or the written word will find joy between these pages.