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The Faith of a Writer: Life, Craft, Art

3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 · rating details · 425 ratings · 53 reviews

A tribute to the brilliant craftsmanship of one of our most distinguished writers, providing valuable insight into her inspiration and her method

Joyce Carol Oates is widely regarded as one of America's greatest contemporary literary figures. Having written in a number of genres -- prose, poetry, personal and critical essays, as well as plays -- she is an artist ideally sui...more

Paperback, 176 pages

Published September 14th 2004 by Ecco (first published 2003)

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Mar 16, 2009 Elaine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Such an elegant writer. This is one of the best books on writing that I have read, and I have read my share. I copied this for my writing workshop: Since writing is ideally a balance between the private vision and the public world, the one passionate and often inchoate, the other formally constructed, quick to categorize and assess, it's necessary to thin of this art as a craft. Without craft, art remains private, Without art, craft is merely hackwork." I mean, really, what more is there to say....more

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Oct 25, 2012 Fabian added it

A rich and prolific literary life—this is the reason why the young reader should prick up his ears, pick up The Faith of a Writer, and begin to discern the secret of JCO’s success. Her first invaluable gem of wisdom? “Young or beginning writers must be urged to read widely, ceaselessly, both classics and contemporaries, for without an immersion in the history of the craft, one is doomed to remain an amateur: an individual for whom enthusiasm is ninety-nine percent of the creative effort." Which...more A rich and prolific literary life—this is the reason why the young reader should prick up his ears, pick up The Faith of a Writer, and begin to discern the secret of JCO’s success. Her first invaluable gem of wisdom? “Young or beginning writers must be urged to read widely, ceaselessly, both classics and contemporaries, for without an immersion in the history of the craft, one is doomed to remain an amateur: an individual for whom enthusiasm is ninety-nine percent of the creative effort." Which means that only readers become writers—already, this has been highlighted over and over ad nauseum by the likes of Stephen King, Francine Prose, Mario Vargas Llosa and plenty others. Of course, her “faith as a writer” is her personal poetics themselves—already on page one she has set down her beliefs; the core of her craft. “The individual voice,” she tells us, “is the communal voice. The regional voice is the universal voice."

Musing about the origin of your reading addiction is a pleasant and constant activity. JCO makes us all sigh in relief when she recalls her first memories with literature. Although I particularly abhor the Alice books, I do agree with JCO in her assessment that as a child, the allure of books contained the “voices of adult authenticity." Wanting to grow up, indeed, goes hand in hand with constantly reading about adult themes and situations. When in elementary school, the avid reader, the smart kid, finds that there are riches beyond his wildest dreams in books by King, and Anne Rice, and anything that is strange and fascinating, and he finally leaves behind short adolescent novels by the likes of R. L. Stine, Stephanie Meyer, and Judy Blume.

In “To a Young Writer” we are once more showered with damn good advice. A list:

1) “your struggle…your emotions…make possible hours, days, weeks, months and years of what will appear to others…as ‘work’.”

2) Don’t lose courage or compare yourself to others (“if you want confirmation of your essential worthlessness, you can always find it, somewhere").

3) “Write for your own time, if not for your own generation exclusively."

4) “immerse” yourself in whatever strikes you—be as idealist, romantic, “yearning” as you wish, for this will come to your aid.

5) And Write your heart out, she repeats and repeats, like some magic, poetic mantra.

Again, a sigh of relief emanates from me, with JCO’s advice #3. I write contemporary stuff—so that’s clearly a plus—it certainly does inspire relief.

One facet of the writer’s life no other writer has, to my knowledge, made mere mention of as of yet is that of failure. In “Notes on Failure” JCO wisely tells her readers that the writer is a bizarre creature (duh); some masochistically believe in the needlepoint philosophy of “Beware the danger in happiness!” even though they have an “addictive nature of incompletion and risk."

Also, I am glad that in “Inspiration!” there is an appropriate mention of the early Surrealists—perhaps Synesthetes is majorly affected by their haunting influence?—of which JCO writes: “[Their] images were, at the outset, purely ordinary images, decontextualized and made strange.” I think this is the modern condition of every single writer living today: with every single plot and character type already having been discovered, there is only one genuine chance of creating a masterpiece by picking out (“borrowing") what works for that singular piece itself.

Perhaps the best reason to listen to JCO (What?! No recommended reading?!) is that, although she is incredibly prolific and has incredible range (novels, poetry, YA fiction, story collections, plays, essays…), she, too, knows a twinge about failure. I will admit that I’ve read gems of hers, novels such as Zombie and Black Water, but blatant crap like Oprah Book Club selection We Were the Mulvaneys is so totally disappointing, especially since she was already a literary behemoth by that time, that the legend of JCO becomes completely human—and that, at least, I can empathize with. The Faith of a Writer is essential: both reassuring and realistic.
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Aug 21, 2011 Charles Bechtel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Writers who have contemplated writing a novel

Recommended to Charles by: A library browsing

She's amazing for being prolific, and I am sure there are legions of faithful Oatesians out there, but I rarely hear her books discussed as much as her activity in producing them. I own a dozen JCO books, and have finished only one, the shortest. This may be the cruelest thing a fellow writer can say, that she loses me almost always.

Be that as it may, 'The Faith of a Writer: life, craft, art' is a book worth reading, if you are a writer. I can't imagine a reader having much to glean from it, unl...more

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Jul 26, 2012 Ron Christiansen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nf, on-writing

More literary and less personal than I thought it would be and she does focus a lot on white male authors (Joyce, Hemingway, Faulkner etc--though quite a lot on Virginia Wolf) as one goodreads reviewer points out; still a solid read about writing with a different angle than one usually gets (see Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird or Stephen Kings On writing). I found many compelling passages: "One is born not to suffer but to negotiate with suffering, to choose or invent forms to accommodate it" (67) or...more

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Apr 24, 2012 Sara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm not really sure where the last hundred or so pages of this book went. I sat down to read it while hitting a dead patch in my writing this afternoon and ended up finishing the book as Oates took me along with her train of thought. I cursed myself the entire time for having checked this book out of the library rather than buying it, thereby not being able to underline and comment and make a general conversational mess of the text (I mean, I could have, but the library probably would have gotte...more I'm not really sure where the last hundred or so pages of this book went. I sat down to read it while hitting a dead patch in my writing this afternoon and ended up finishing the book as Oates took me along with her train of thought. I cursed myself the entire time for having checked this book out of the library rather than buying it, thereby not being able to underline and comment and make a general conversational mess of the text (I mean, I could have, but the library probably would have gotten a little pissy with me when I returned the book). As I read, I found myself constantly conversing with Joyce, thinking, "OHMYGOD you do that too!? That makes me feel SO MUCH BETTER!" constantly.

Since graduating from college, I've found myself in a bit of a dry place as a writer, with no community to speak of and no feeling of camaraderie with anyone who could really understand what I was going through. I've felt like something of an alien, not sure whether these weird "working people" could really get what was going on in my brain. But then, Joyce came along and made me feel like I wasn't such a freak and a loser, if only because she spoke so well to my own insecurities. To me, JCO is this prolific, untouchable goddess of literature, churning out more product in a year than I'll probably create in an entire lifetime. She didn't even really seem entirely real, in spite of the fact that I'd been reading her since high school (or maybe because of that), but this story fleshes her out so nicely in her writer persona in the way that her memoir fleshed her out for me as an individual. It was pretty fantastic to see her reference her predecessors and inspirations as well--writers that had an impact for her who also expressed their own thoughts and anxieties.

So while I've read ruminations of distant writers on their inadequacy and issues before, JCO's encouragement and insecurities were particularly poignant for me. This may not be the case for everyone, but I really felt that her words were useful for me. I'll definitely be buying this one in the near future, and encourage writers to look this book up. From one writer to another, I can tell you it helps to feel, even peripherally, as if someone else--especially someone of her prolific experience--understands your issues and shares your inspirations. (less)

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Dec 27, 2010 Anne rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book reads like it is written by someone who is really stuck up. By stuck-up, I mean someone who takes themselves and their privileges too seriously. JCO gives some good pointer about how to feel about the act of writing and failing, but over-emphasizes the works of the white male cannon, with no reflexivity on all that it excludes; she just seems to be happy that she has been given a provisional pass to join it. Moreover, she makes some sweeping statements about the writing life that simpl...more

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Sep 25, 2011 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This collection of essays and one re-printed interview is not the feel good sort of lift you up make you want to write memoir on writing, as say, Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, or Stephen King's part memoir, part instruction On Writing. It's more a psychological look at writing and writers, heavy hitters to be specific, with the slant of literary criticism one might expect from America's preeminent female contemporary author, and Princeton professor.

I loved it, and wish I owned a copy. And I need...more

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Mar 17, 2010 Megankellie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: writingnerdout

She says "memesis."

Reading this, I felt angry, bored and jealous. Then I hated her more, then I decided I'd hate her writing. Then I wasn't reading this for like a week and I keep thinking about it. She seems humorless and boring, but part of me is angry that I can't manage to be exactly like her and dear Lord, look at the number of books she's written. You'll hear a lot of Ivy League and Summer Home and "my office" comments, which if you are mature will not make you angry. Just don't expect to...more

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Feb 21, 2012 Sara Farinha rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Escrever é a mais solitária das artes. O próprio acto de nos afastarmos do mundo a fim de criar um contramundo “fictício” – “metafórico” – revela-se de tal maneira curioso que escapa à nossa compreensão. Porque escrevemos? Porque lemos?…”

Assim começa a viagem pela Fé de um Escritor, um conjunto de ensaios com que Joyce nos incita a tentar conjugar todas as peças do “eu” e do “eu-escritor”.

(...)

Ver a crítica na totalidade em: http://sarinhafarinha.wordpress.com/2...

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Jan 05, 2009 Zinta rated it 4 of 5 stars

"Art," writes Joyce Carol Oates, "is the highest expression of the human spirit." And while humankind has often struggled to express why it is that art is so very necessary to our spirits (why is art the first course cut in public education when budgets require constraint?), we cannot exist without it. Art is, in great part, our communication with each other, our attempt as social animals to connect, but first and foremost, as Oates goes on to describe, it is our solitary striving to go deep - i...more "Art," writes Joyce Carol Oates, "is the highest expression of the human spirit." And while humankind has often struggled to express why it is that art is so very necessary to our spirits (why is art the first course cut in public education when budgets require constraint?), we cannot exist without it. Art is, in great part, our communication with each other, our attempt as social animals to connect, but first and foremost, as Oates goes on to describe, it is our solitary striving to go deep - into ourselves, connecting with our innermost and hidden hearts.

In this collection of essays, Oates, known perhaps more for her amazing ability to be one of the most prolific writers of all time (something she says in one of her essays that she does not quite understand, that is, why she is seen as prolific ... to which point, I urge the author to check out her own list of published works, in and of itself a short book), examines the art and craft of writing. These are not necessarily essays written one to build upon another, but separate and independent pieces, including an interview done with Oates to discuss her fictionalized history of Marilyn Monroe, "Blonde."

Included in this collection are biographical essays on how Oates grew up, her childhood and one-room school days, a time of discovery that reading books was entering a new world beyond this one. Fittingly, "Alice in Wonderland" was the first book that so mesmerized her and has kept its hold on her lifelong. Dropping down the rabbit hole into a world that was a surprise at every turn, where all things were open to re-creation, where one is never quite sure one will be able to return fully to that other reality, is not unlike the life of a writer.

Also, essays on honing the craft prior to the art - and that would always begin, and never end, with reading. Reading and reading, endlessly reading, and she puts an almost equal importance on reading the classics, but no less the not quite classics, such as comic books. All can teach the writer - something about language, something about storyline, something about plot movement and suspense and conflict and resolution. It is not so much what one reads as that one reads.

There are also essays on a writer's space, what it might and should contain, the art of self criticism, the squishy business of inspiration, surely important notes on failure, and others along that vein. Even a piece on running and writing, how Oates finds that much of her writing happens first in her head, long before it reaches paper (she writes her first drafts always in long-hand), and so running seems to be an activity especially conducive to unstringing such creative and transportive trains of thought.

Above all, Oates states, immerse yourself. If writing is about craft first, the learning of grammar and sentence structure (and she is one of those writers who revises as she writes) and other such primary tools, then it enters that ephemeral world of Art - like dropping through the rabbit hole - when one dares to leave this world and fully enter into that one. Immersion. Nothing less.

"I believe that we yearn to transcend the merely finite and ephemeral; to participate in something mysterious and communal called 'culture' - and that this yearning is as strong in our species as the yearning to reproduce the species."

Perhaps because fine art, in any medium, is itself a kind of reproducing the species. And giving it new life.

While this is not my favorite book of writer writing about writing - that spot is reserved for Annie Dillard's "The Writing Life," Bret Lott's "Before We Get Started: A Practical Memoir of a Writer's Life," and Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life" - it was satisfying. I found in some ways a kindred spirit, for I, too, prefer a first draft in longhand, revise along the way, feel that writing is like entering a trance not unlike madness, and wrote my first "masterpieces," just as Oates did, even prior to knowing HOW to write. I saw my parents writing, and although I had no idea what those scribbles meant, I was well amused to sit for hours doing the same. Rows and rows of looping and connected lines, containing magic. With a writer's faith that someday, somehow, someone will read my scribbles and sense the magic, too. As did Oates, today as mesmerized by that process as she was as a child. Therein, one suspects, lies the explanation to her ability to be that prolific.
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May 01, 2011 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is just the book I needed right now.

JCO has intrigued me since I first read a short story of hers in college. Since then, I've read a handful of her works, never quite sure of whether or not I truly like them. But her brilliance here shines. Wonderful, thought-provoking advice for anyone that aspires to be, or considers themselves, a writer.

Especially if you're in somewhat of a "dark place" with your own creations, this might just be the book to return you to the light. It did so for me.

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Dec 18, 2012 T Justin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Ms. Oates is the proverbial prolific writer. I consider my own mind to be in a constant state of overdrive. I cannot imagine being behind her eyes. Her series of short reflective essays in the book each stand on their own. They are not so much informative as observational. But do not deprive yourself of her voice and insight. She is, after all, the literary phenomenon of two centuries and her works will live on forever.

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Jun 24, 2010 Readitnweep rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

There were a few good points that I found encouraging as a writer - never quit, the real writing is in the editing, and failure can be good. The rest of the book is pure fluff. She rambles on. This book could have been about 3 pages long and been most effective. Also, this is written by a person who has had too much time to think. My time reading this book, I finally decided, was better spent on my own writing. If she is this long-winded in everything she writes, I'll skip her books.

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May 01, 2013 Sherri rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-about-books, e-reader, nonfiction, phx-library, trying-to-be-better, the-writing-life

"JCO" talks about other writers' habits more than her own in this book on writing. Interesting information on Hemingway, Woolf, Dickinson, Carver, Melville, etc., but not much on Oates herself. She stresses the importance of reading in order to become a better writer and how physical activity, especially running, can help writers' thought processes. Interesting but not as inspirational as I had hoped.

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Oct 27, 2009 Lorna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really enjoyed this book. I am not a fan of Alice in Wonderland which she writes about in several essays so I did skip some sections. This is a book you can pick and choose. I borrowed this from the library I am considering adding to my personal bookshelf.

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Feb 22, 2013 Laura rated it 2 of 5 stars

I did not finish reading this- a rare happening for me. I like some of JCO's work but her style especially in this book was overwhelming, and i found it obscured her points (which are made better and more interestingly in Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott).

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Sep 17, 2012 Jenny rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was surprised that I liked this one more than I liked Stephen King's creative writing how to book. I like Stephen King's stories better (only a little because I def. do not love his writing) than Oates, but I liked her Creative Writing how to book better.

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Jul 02, 2009 Echo rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 50-books-in-09, nonfiction

This book wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I was expecting either. I thought it would be one of those writing books where the author talks about their own writing process. Instead, she seemed to ramble on without really coming to a point and to talk about other authors and how they did things. And since they're mostly dead and never wrote their own books on writing, these thoughts on how they did things are drawn from their personal diaries, memoirs, or their novels. I felt like I was reading a st...more

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May 13, 2010 Maggie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literary-analysis

See my analysis of this work in the 2004 Magill's Literary Annual. Oates encourages writers to persist in their efforts to write by citing the habits, expectations and advice of a number of successful authors.

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Apr 18, 2009 Colin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Essentially a more cerebral version of Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird - (though I'm sure both Oates and Lamott would both prickle to hear me say it) whether you prefer Lamott's plain-spoken advice or Joyce Carol Oates' oblique, analytical voice is really up to the reader.

The individual chapters are cobbled together from an assortment of sources; at times you may find yourself wondering what one chapter's relation to another might be. The final two chapters especially seem a bit superfluous: One is...more

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Aug 30, 2012 Nicole rated it 5 of 5 stars

Can only praise and admire. Powerful ideas, thoughtful and inspiring analysis of writing process to be enjoyed and absorbed by small amounts:.very useful for us who write

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Aug 29, 2009 Susan Barrett Price rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: writers

Fast, inspiring reflections on writing, not only from Oates but from her study of other writers.

I was particularly struck by her essay on Failure and how writers inhabit their failure. Failure is agony; failure is important; good writers build on failure. Struck a chord with me.

Read on my iPhone, ebook downloaded from Barnes & Noble.

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Mar 15, 2011 Kerry rated it 4 of 5 stars

Educational, but still a wonderful read.

I thought this memoir of Joyce Carol Oates life and career was just a wonderful piece of literature. The twelve essays were given in such a way that I could easy understand. The essays explore Ms. Oates' driving force in her career as a writer. These essays are very educational for aspiring authors and even for those folks like me that just want to learn about a great writer such as Ms. Oates.
There were detail discussion by the author on her daily life; he...more

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Jan 10, 2009 Sam rated it 3 of 5 stars

Oates gives a lot of great advice to writers, but more to my point, she offers significant insight into the direction one should take if their further aim is to study the writing of GREAT WRITERS.

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Jul 16, 2009 Robin Yaklin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: writing-technique

Typical Oates! I find her hard to read, but, and there's a big BUT I always get something.

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Jan 13, 2013 Renee rated it 4 of 5 stars

A good book on the writing life -- for writers, by one of the most important writers.

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Jul 30, 2012 Charlotte rated it 4 of 5 stars

Helps me accept the obsessive elements of writing. And my obsessions. One I return to.

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Jun 11, 2011 Andrea Moran Brown rated it 5 of 5 stars

Excellent! I copied full passages of this book into my journal of great quotes.

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Sep 20, 2009 Sara rated it 5 of 5 stars

too much goodness for such a small comment box.

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Aug 08, 2012 Elaine Bearden marked it as to-read

looks cool

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About Joyce Carol Oates

Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction. She is also the recipient of the 2005 Prix Femina for The Falls. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and she has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978. Pseudonyms ... Rosamond Smith and Laure ...more

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