Letters to a Fiction Writer

Bys: Busch, Frederick and Busch, Fredric

Book Overview

A collection of essays from notable writers, including Joyce Carol Oates, Ray Bradbury, and Andre Dubus, that offers advice, wisdom, and insight to fiction writers about the art of writing and surviving the writing life.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393047350
• ISBN13: 9780393047356
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Length: 291 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 1.3" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Letters from a friend

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.

Comforting, wise, tremendously helpful

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.

Changed my writing (if not my real) life

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.

Outstanding. One "bright moment" after another

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.

Great advice from those who know.

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