Revisionaries
What We Can Learn from the Lost, Unfinished, and Just Plain Bad Work of Great Writers
Published on 15. October 2024
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-1-68369-373-4 (ISBN)
Description
Find creative inspiration in this fascinating rummage through the wastebaskets, secret diaries, and abandoned files of 20 literary superstars.
"A pocket-size book of wonders. . . . Both astute and empathetic."-Wall Street Journal
"Aspiring novelists will be heartened."-Publishers Weekly
In Revisionaries, a writing expert takes you on an engrossing tour through the discarded drafts, false starts, and abandoned projects of influential writers. In the process, he dismantles some of our most deeply held-and most suffocating-ideas about what it takes to produce great creative work. You'll learn that:
Franz Kafka lacked confidence
Octavia Butler had writer's block
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote bad drafts
Ralph Ellison got overwhelmed
Louisa May Alcott got off to a bad start
And more deep, dark secrets about the authors you most admire
Written by an award-winning novelist and creative-writing professor, Revisionaries is a compelling peek behind the scenes of genius for writers and readers alike.
"A pocket-size book of wonders. . . . Both astute and empathetic."-Wall Street Journal
"Aspiring novelists will be heartened."-Publishers Weekly
In Revisionaries, a writing expert takes you on an engrossing tour through the discarded drafts, false starts, and abandoned projects of influential writers. In the process, he dismantles some of our most deeply held-and most suffocating-ideas about what it takes to produce great creative work. You'll learn that:
Franz Kafka lacked confidence
Octavia Butler had writer's block
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote bad drafts
Ralph Ellison got overwhelmed
Louisa May Alcott got off to a bad start
And more deep, dark secrets about the authors you most admire
Written by an award-winning novelist and creative-writing professor, Revisionaries is a compelling peek behind the scenes of genius for writers and readers alike.
Reviews / Votes
"A pocket-size book of wonders. . . . Both astute and empathetic."-Wall Street Journal"Aspiring novelists will be heartened."-Publishers Weekly
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Andrews McMeel Publishing
Dimensions
Height: 139 mm
Width: 210 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
532 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-68369-373-4 (9781683693734)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Kristopher Jansma is the author of the novels Our Narrow Hiding Places, Why We Came to the City, and The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards. He is the winner of the Sherwood Anderson Foundation Fiction Award, a Pushcart Prize, and the recipient of an honorable mention for the PEN/Hemingway Award. His short fiction, distinguished in The Best American Short Stories 2016, has been published in The Sun, Alaska Quarterly Review, Prairie Schooner, Story, ZYZZYVA, and elsewhere. Kristopher is an associate professor of English and director of the creative writing program at SUNY New Paltz College.