The Joy of Writing: A Guide for Writers, Disguised as a Literary Memoir [Hardcover]

Pierre Berton, Canada's most accomplished popular historian, has written a practical and lively guidebook for those who aspire to be published and those who are already authors but could use a bit of advice from one who's long-accomplished in the writer's craft.

The opening chapter consists of letters that Berton has received over the years from would-be authors who expound at length on their fantastic book ideas and beg for the secret ingredient to getting published. Mind you, they usually don't like the answer: work hard. Berton goes on to offer practical suggestions about researching your subject, dealing with rejection, and equally important, dealing with success.

As a writer, I appreciated that he also acknowledged the fact that we can be a pretty difficult lot to understand. During the research phase of a given project, we're out there in society, making contacts, interviewing people, and participating in lively discussions with those who share our interest in the subject matter. When it comes time to put it all in manuscript form by a certain deadline, we're in the Bermuda Triangle of our lives. Berton writes:

"It is during this period when the pieces are being fitted together that a writer becomes difficult to live with.... He drives his car erratically, scarcely speaks to his wife, ignores his children. All this anti-social behavior is understandable, because what the writer is doing in those moments is WRITING. She is thinking about people, events, and sources, struggling to put them into some kind of order and perspective. She can no more cut off this flow of thought than she can cut off the flow of her own blood." He adds ruefully, "During these intensive periods, as my friends and family know, I'm not much fun. When the time comes to do the actual typing, I try to cut myself off from the world, refusing invitations, ignoring the television set, and letting others answer the telephone with a curt 'He's busy'." When Berton tried to contact author Farley Mowat for his take on the matter, Mowat's wife "reported that he was writing and had absolutely refused to take telephone calls."

He acknowledges that writer culture is a bit like police culture in that you're in a business that isolates you from the mainstream. Therefore your closest friends tend to be other writers, or those who also find their lives taken over from time to time by huge projects with vicious deadlines. This has been my experience too. It's not a bad thing, although Berton admits that many would-be writers back off from their dream because they fear accusations of selfishness, etc. Look at it this way- needier people are the only ones who will take issue. What you'll be left with are the more stable friends and associates who will cheer your success instead of resent it.

"The Joy of Writing" can be taken as an instruction manual or a witty literary memoir. For me, it was both.

Pierre Berton has written an excellent book about writing non-fiction. I've read the book once already; now I'll study it. It's a book that every non-fiction writer should read over and over.

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