The most practical, concrete, structural, and balls to the fucking wall awesome guide to writing and being a writer I've ever read. ( )

A fascinating book for those seeking to improve grammar and syntax, of course, but this book does even more - it helps the writer learn to be discerning in choice of phrase, seeking just the right words and word-combinations to capture the thought exactly. Gardner helps writers of all ages cultivate good taste. ( )

Gardner is a bit of a gasbag. When not being pompous, he was being non-productive. Apart from Grendel, his notable literary achievements are rather thin on the ground. Having read him in a creative writing class, adoring this schmuck is a reason for my dislike and dismay at creative writing classes and their skewed priorities. Basically, if you don't know the Western Canon from top to bottom, you have no business in the creative writing field. His disdain for genre fiction seems rather obtuse, considering where the money is in fiction writing. Considering the success of writers like James Patterson, Stephanie Meyer, and Kevin J. Anderson, they seem obvious counter-examples to this book, since those three can't write that well at all, crafting sentences that would make an eighth grade English composition teacher gnash her teeth. ( )

This is a useful book for any aspiring writer to read, but one had best approach it with a skeptical eye.

It's greatest fault is Grdner's momumental ego. He repeatedly makes dogmatic assertions, stating his opinions as fact despite their weak support. And as one might expect from a writing teacher, he declares that one cannot be a serious writer without being educated as one, ignoring the numerous examples that disprove his claim (Steinbeck and Hemingway, for starters, although Gardner liked neither). He's just plain patronizing throughout: you will probably never be a good writer, and most of the writers you think are good are bad, but Gardner knows all....

Nevertheless, the book contains much food for thought and some valuable exercises.

This book is at once very informative and very challenging and, it seems to be written for the most serious of writers. I myself am new to writing but I have read a lot on the craft and I felt this book to be very informative. I can also see where some people would be put off by it. He has a very elitist tone and says so himself. He doesn't give much value to popular fiction praising literary works as "true" fiction and even still finds fault with some of them. However, i do feel that, if one can look past a few small flaws, maybe in the man's personality more than anything, one can come away with some great attitudes, information and motivation. John Gardner believes in writing perfect stories and endless revision. I believe that if one were to follow what they read very literally they would definitely become better writers and novelists from reading this book. ( )