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Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing: A Novelist Looks at His Craft

Morrell, most famous for writing the original Rambo novel, shares his reflections on over 30 years in the writing trade. I would say about 20% of this book is exceptionally good and the rest seems like filler. Much of the content is better presented in other books on writing (Stein on Writing, for example).

Some of the advice is paradoxical. For example, in the chapter titled “The First Page,” Morrell presents 11 models of great first paragraphs. All but two have a first person narrator (and their narrative power comes from this point of view). That would be fine except the entire previous chapter (“The First Person”) explains how difficult first person is to use properly: “An author shouldn’t choose a first-person viewpoint unless no other viewpoint will work…” How useful, then, are these paragraph examples? This book has quite a number of these inconsistencies (especially in the chapter on dialogue).

On the bright side, there is some great advice here. In one section, Morrell recommends beginning writers to check the books in the New Releases section of a bookstore once a month. Read “the first sentence/paragraph/page of every one of them.” Such a practice can offer a sense of the type of material that editors are currently purchasing as well as supply instruction for good and bad openings.

A must-read if you’ve written a novel is the chapter titled “Getting Published and the Business of Writing.” It describes the business side of writing, editing, and publishing. Morrell’s anecdotes about book tours/signings have information I’ve not come across elsewhere. While the book is “sorta” recommended, this chapter is highly recommended.