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

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.