Product Description

In 1957 John Braine was a Yorkshire librarian with an impressive collection of publishers' rejection slips. But then his first published novel was an instant best seller and ROOM AT THE TOP launched him on a career as one of Britain's most successful novelists. Experiences like his are what keep Britain's 500,000 spare-time writers plugging away, hoping for publication and perhaps even a moment of fame. Few people understand as well as John Braine the torments of the hopeful unknown. For everyone who, as he did, faces spare-time writing and the indifference of publishers, he wrote this book. It is not a treatise on the art of fiction. Braine calls it 'a tour of his workshop' - a practical manual which tells the aspiring writer everything about writing a publishable first novel. With a wealth of quotations and advice, know-how and technique, this is a book which really works - and which can be applied successfully by anyone with the basic urge to write.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #55357 in Books
• Published on: 1974-04-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Review
Most books which attempt to teach the writing of a novel (or just about any other genre) are predestined to failure since writing is a talent not a trade; but then "It's absolutely marvelous to write a successful novel" and success is "sweet and succulent" and you can surely earn 2000 pounds a year even if you can't live on it but be sure to put out of your mind "any notion of experiment" (It's not successful). With an arriviste naivete far beyond anything we might have expected of Joe Lambert, Braine has a prix fixe technique - "write from experience" otherwise it's worthless; apply yourself during three two-hourly sessions per week, 350 words each; etc., etc., along with excerpts and illustrations from others who have produced good and/or best-selling books. If "a writer is a person who counts words," one might equally truthfully admit that a reviewer is a person who counts pages when they don't say anything worthwhile. (Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author
Born in Yorkshire in 1922, John Braine's first published novel was ROOM AT THE TOP. It brought him great fame and wealth and was subsequently made into a classic film starring Laurence Harvey and Simone Signoret. He wrote many other novels before his death in 1986.

Customer Reviews

One of the good ones
This and Stephen King's 'On Writing' are the two most useful books I have read about the writing process. I kept starting a novel then going back to re-write and never getting very far. Once I read this book, I sat down and wrote the whole thing out without stopping. It was incoherent, but I had enough (more than enough to work with). Best kickstart I have ever had.

Useful book
Braine knows how to call a spade a spade and although sometimes i wondered how much of a personal rant this book was becoming, it does contain a lot of useful information. If you want to be a writer surely it makes sense to sit down for a chat with a writer who knows his stuff. And if you can't get a chat, then read the book and listen to his forthright opinions on the subject of (you guessed it, the title's a dead giveaway) how to write a novel.

Top drawer
The Finnish reviewer has written an intelligent and accurate appraisal. I teach writing and always recommend Braine's book but thought it was long out of print. He has some odd, idiosyncratic, ideas (e.g., that a novel 'must have' at least twenty chapters) but overall this is an enlightening and practical book. As the other reviewer mentions, the book contains an exact method for getting the job done. This is unusual. Perhaps I can recommend also the following writers-on-writing: Dorothea Brande, Damon Knight, and Dwight V Swain.