Writing with the Master

How One of the World’s Bestselling Authors Fixed My Book and Changed My Life

By: Tony Vanderwarker

Narrated by: Fred Stella

Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

With seven unpublished novels wasting away on his hard drive, Tony Vanderwarker is astonished when John Grisham offers to take him under his wing and teach him the secrets of thriller writing. The beginning and the end are easy,” Grisham tells him. It’s the three hundred pages in the middle that’s the hard part.”

To ensure his plot doesn’t run out of gas, Grisham puts Tony though his outline process. Tony does one, and then Grisham asks for another and another and another. As they work together, Grisham reveals the techniques that have helped him create compelling bestsellers for more than two decades—for instance, “You’ve got to hook your reader in the first forty pages or you’ll lose them.” After a year of constructing outlines, Grisham finally gives Tony the go-ahead to start writing.

Writing with the Master immerses the reader in the creative process as Tony struggles to produce a successful thriller. It’s a roller coaster ride, sometimes hilarious, and often full of ups and downs. Grisham’s critiques and margin notes to Tony reveal his nimble imagination and plot development genius. For Grisham fans, Vanderwarker’s memoir pulls back the curtain on his writing secrets, and for aspiring writers, it’s a master class in thriller writing.

In the end, Tony resolves to take Grisham’s teachings to heart and eventually decides to write what he thinks he was meant to: A book about the creative process and his incredible two years working with John Grisham.

©2014 Tony Vanderwarker (P)2013 Audible Inc.

Not your average book about writing

I love books about the craft of writing, I have shelves full of them both physical and virtual. This book stands out as a different perspective on the writers craft, the true story of writing a novel with the assistance of a professional author as your mentor. While much can be learned from this book, it's not be confused with the How-To style of writing manual. Entertaining and informative, it is, in my opinion well worth the credit and is one of my personal favorites.

This is NOT a how-to book. It's a good story!

This book is to writing as The Karate Kid is to karate; a tale of one person's journey in pursuit of a passion; the challenges, the successes, and snippets of daily life thrown to give the main character more dimension.

This is not a how-to book. If you want to learn how to be a writer, there are plenty of books out there. This is a story about how, well, it's in the title: How one of the world's best authors fixed his book and changed his life.

Tony does a great job, really exposing his own ego in the process. And it's a huge ego. At one point, he spends about 20 or 30 minutes reading the latest version of his story, with cut-ins, congratulating himself and picking out the best suit for his appearance on the tonight show.

And the manuscript he's narrating isn't that great at the time, and makes a lot of common mistakes. At that point, I almost gave up on the book, thinking that the previous reviewer was correct; this book is nothing more than a companion piece to a half-rate novel.

But when he begins to narrate Grisham's critique, and describe how he feels like he's been drop-kicked in the face, I absolutely identified with him. I've spent a lot of nights spewing out what I thought would be the greatest thing since Carrie or the Shining, and my own mentor tore it to shreds. I felt the exact same way; denial, bargaining, surrender, and eventually acceptance, but only after deciding I'd never ever try to write again.

I can't think of another book about the writing process that details what Tony's put in here, specifically the parts outside of typing words on a keyboard; (building plot, revisions, taking criticism, more revisions, etc). The helpful points about writing are useful, but overall, it's just a great story about one person's journey through writing a novel.

IF the novel in question went on to become a million-seller, this would be a different book about someone who found the magic handshake to success. But the fact that (prior to the epilogue) he hadn't published his novel makes the story all the more interesting to me; makes it more accessible.

So I'll give this book 4 stars. The narration wasn't fantastic, it was a person who's better suited for non-fiction, which is probably another part that's confusing to listeners.

entertaining read

initially, I had expected this book to share writing advice through the lens of the author as a budding writer learning from his friend who had reached the full bloom of a successfully published author with a large fan base. creative way to teach writing through telling his own success and failure. excellent humblebragging. entertaining and at the same time frustrating. while it was nice to be led by example rather than the author boring the reader with long lists of to do, this book was hard to follow because it read like a memoir with a mystery. the mystery being the reader must find the story behind the story. was the story all the people in his life and how they interacted with the author? was the story how and what the author learned from his author friend? I think perhaps the story is left for each reader to find on their own.

Loved it!!!

This was really enjoyable to listen to and it actually included some great lessons. A must listen!

Interesting and Fun

It was a good book about the ups and downs of the writing process. Including brutal reviews from Grisham about the Sleeping Dogs novel. Tony's humor about the writing process was much appreciated . His "detours" into the Environmental Group he worked for, his buddies, and his advertising adventures kept it interesting and fun.

Glad I dived in before reading the bad reviews

This book has an audience.
So yes, you read the title and you thought it was another classroom style lecture about how to write a book. But after a few pages any reader should realize what this is. Then go along with it or drop it if you're that impatient. There's no need to bash it.
I give no credit to people who critic books without having read them.
Now, to any open minded person who reads this review, get this:
This book is the story of a wanna-be-writer. If you picked it up it's probably because you are one too. I know I am.
If you are, then this book is for you and it is golden. You will get to see yourself through the main character.
His trials and multiple failures, his ego, his work/life balance issues, his loneliness, his family involvement, his friends and support system.
But most of all you will get the invaluable lessons from his mentor ( an accomplished bestselling author). And that's the part of the book you will enjoy the most. But unlike the usual lectures, you get the chance to follow an amateur writer being coached by a master. The will witness the mistakes and how they will be ripped apart by the master, how the student will struggle with criticism and how he will manage to get back up an try again.
And, as a bonus, you will get the story within the story, after all this book is about writing a book. That story is not bad either. Although it's not my kind of story, I enjoyed witnessing the construction of it. It is a real book and it ended up being published along with this one.
Now I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that this is a masterpiece.
If I was to divide this book into 4 quarters, the entire third quarter bored me to death. Our friendly writer picked up on a parallel subject and dwelled on it for pages and pages. I suspect that part is suppose to show how he took a break from writing after a major rejection, and decided to focus on other projects, but I couldn't follow him at all. I've just finished the book and yet I couldn't tell you what that third quarter was about.
The last quarter was better cause he came back to the subject. But I felt like he rushed the end. His mentor's attitude seemed out of character to my taste. I didn't feel the same toughness and strictness he had in the beginning.
But I wanted him to succeed and he did. With a twist, but he did.
There's an adage I read somewhere: " A writer is an amateur that never quits"
At the end of the day, that's what this book is about and that's what makes it worthwhile for anybody who's learning the craft.

Malick Tchakpedeou
#malicktchakpedeou

Entertaining & Informative

The story and writing examples are weaved together in an any to digest learning experience.

Interesting to see behind the veil

I really enjoyed seeing how much work goes into writing at a top tier level, and how at the end you ignored it all and did it your own way without outlines...

oops, spoiler alert above!

interesting & honest

An honest journey of a Writer's life. Thank you. I appreciated the insights and honesty.

Self absorbed ass writes a "book"

The performance given by the reader of this audio book is it's only redeeming quality. The writer himself comes off as extremely privileged, self-absorbed, and stuck up. He spends more time talking about his pet projects than about any advice John Grisham (one of the most successful fiction writers of all time) might have given him in his journey to publish his novel. In other words the only thing interesting about this guy's life, or at least interesting enough to read about, is barely touched on. Grisham comes off as a one-dimensional character, and Tony's depiction of him gives me a hint as to why his novels never got off the ground. Lets's just say if you have John Grisham essentially spoon feeding you novel ideas and pitching it to his people and you still can't get your novel accepted, you may not be a very good writer. Never fear however, our author assures us quitting things has worked out for him time and time again. Must be nice. I for one am glad he stopped wasting his time writing novels, and instead decided to waste it trying to get power line projects shut down so as to not ruin the views in his home town, hope that worked out for him. After all who needs a real job? Self-absorbed indeed, and I actually find myself losing respect for John Grisham just for being friends with this guy. I feel stupid for using an audible credit on this.