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

by Ian Jackman (Author) "With a minuscule leap of imagination, I thought, well, "Writing is like running..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, John O'Hara, Norman Mailer (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The Writer's Mentor is a guide that draws on the collective wisdom and experience of the most successful writers to help aspiring writers with all aspects of the craft. The book includes practitioners of all genres and writers of every literary type: Nobel Prize-winners and thriller writers; memoirists and story-tellers; writers of romance and serious non-fiction. The book advocates the idea that great writing can be found in every category so we should listen to what writers in all fields have to say and learn from them.

From the perspective of these writers, the book addresses each part of the writing process. Writers talk about how they find their inspiration and who has influenced them. They describe how they got started (Nora Roberts was marooned at home with her children in a snowstorm when she put pen to paper) and how they found time and space to pursue their dream. There is space for grammar and style (Why does everyone talk about Ernest Hemingway when they mention style?) and the development of a writing technique. The Mentor includes writers of journalism, plays, poems, and screenplays and also how you can deal with publishers and agents if you want to try to make a living writing.

The only thing the writers here have in common is their success: Included are John le Carre and Patricia Highsmith; Stephen King and Terry Brooks; Tennessee Williams and Toni Morrison; Willa Cather and E.B. White; William Faulkner and Donna Tartt; Alice McDermott and Joyce Carol Oates; J.K. Rowling and J.R.R. Tolkein; Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe; Irvine Welsh and Michael Chabon; Michael Connelly and Elmore Leonard.

Through the wise words of these writers, The Writer's Mentor offers the best advice available to anyone who wants to write.

From the Inside Flap
The Writer's Mentor brings together the most practical and inspiring writing advice ever given by famous writers. Passages and quotations are drawn from essays, interviews, autobiographies, and other sources, and organized topically in short chapters. Through anecdotes and straightforward instruction, all writers will benefit from the masters' secrets of success.

·Advice in the words of the most successful writers ever, presented in thematic chapters for easy reference
·Entertaining?learn while reading fascinating autobiographical tidbits
·Features tips and quotes set apart in the page design
·For all writers and aspiring writers?novelists, journalists, travel writers, magazine columnists, and others

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Random House Reference (April 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375720618
• ISBN-13: 978-0375720611
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #280,721 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jackman scores with Mentor volume. , July 21, 2005

By	Robert Smith - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really instructive, April 21, 2004

By A Customer

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.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bland, recycled quotes and very little real advice., September 23, 2004

By	Rachel C. (Western NY state, USA) - See all my reviews

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.