John Gardner On Writing Fiction: Nine Quotes for Writers

John Gardner. (Public domain)

In my first first writer's conference in 1983 I took both the fiction and non-fiction (article writing) tracks, in part because I wanted to be a publishing freelancer and I also wanted to learn the craft of fiction. It was a life changing week for me and I have been a publishing writer ever since.

In the advanced article writing class, the instructor recommended reading Jack London's Martin Eden, advice which I dutifully followed up on. Years later I read it again, and though now a century old it still offers rewards for wannabe writers.

John Gardner was another author whose books were also recommended. The Art of Fiction and On Becoming a Novelist are considered classics. After finding one of these in our local library I purchased both for my personal library. I'd pretty much suggest that if you are a beginning writer, you do the same. That is, read all the books you can find in the library about the writing craft, then purchase the best ones for your own ongoing usage. (This formula works for advertising, marketing, entrepreneurialism and other pursuits.)

John Gardner was both a writer and a teacher. He wrote more than a dozen books, both fiction and non-fiction including Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf tale from the point of view of the monster.

Gardner died in a motorcycle accident in September 1982, not yet 50. Like too many other artists, he died too young. Here are several quotes from the two books cited above. If you are serious about writing fiction, I commend both of these to you.

The Art of Fiction

"Though the literary dabbler may write a fine story now and then, the true writer is one for whom technique has become, as for the pianist, second nature."
J. Gardner


"... whatever the genre may be, fiction does its work by creating a dream in the reader's mind."
J. Gardner


"Thus the value of great fiction, we begin to suspect, is not just that it entertains us or distracts us from our troubles, not just that it broadens our knowledge of people and places, but also that it helps us to know what we believe, reinforces those qualities that are noblest in us, leads us to feel uneasy about our faults and limitations."
J. Gardner


"What the young writer needs to develop, to achieve his goal of becoming a great artist, is not a set of aesthetic laws, but artistic mastery."
J. Gardner  

"At least in conventional fiction, the moment we stop caring where the story will go next... the writer has failed, and we stop reading.
J. Gardner  

"When the amateur writer lets a bad sentence stand in his final draft, though he knows its bad, the sin is frigidity: he has not yet learned the importance of his art..."
J. Gardner 


On Becoming a Novelist

"It may feel more classy to imitate James Joyce... than All In the Family; but every literary imitation lacks something we expect of good writing: the writer seeing with his own eyes."
J. Gardner


"Detail is the lifeblood of fiction."
J. Gardner


"The study of writing, like the study of classical piano, is not practical but aristocratic. If one is born rich, one can easily afford to be an artist; if not, one has to afford one's art by sacrifice."
J. Gardner  

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* Philip Yancey was keynote speaker at the banquet. I had the good fortune of having a meal with him that evening.