How a Writer Works

by Roger H. Garrison

“Though it is brief, this is a demanding book. It assumes flexibility, imagination, and a certain spontaneity in the relationship between student and teacher. It also assumes a significant measure of direct person-to-person student-teacher collaboration, very much like the way a professional writer works with an editor. This is the apprentice system updated; it assumes a master (teacher) relationship to apprentice (beginning writer). In so doing, it may be ‘radical’ only in the sense that it changes the pedagogue-disciple relationship to something more realistic—and incomparably more effective.”
From the Preface

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

131 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is dated, which makes it almost whimsical at times. Written in 1981 before the days of the internet, it contains advice about how to use a card catalog and spend hours researching in the library. :) I also smiled at the part when he said an author's most useful tools were a pair of scissors and tape, for moving around parts of your writing. How lucky we are today in the age of computers and the web!

My husband picked this up and a pile of other writing books from a library that was discarding them. This one is one of my favorites but it was not particularly helpful for me personally. I think it's more designed for college students or others who are very new to writing (or writing well). It contains a lot of examples of writing from his students and how those pieces were improved. It would be a great book for a high school student, college student or new writer. Homeschooling families might also find it very helpful. Experienced writers aren't likely to get much out of it, but may enjoy it anyway.

As a side note, the author died of a massive heart attack while revising the book for its updated edition. Knowing this, I related all the more to his conversational tone and it led to a really bittersweet reading for me, especially when he mentioned that he was a single parent of a teenage son.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent text for college writers.