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1-Page Summary of The Art Of Fiction

Overall Summary

John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction (1991) is a guide to help aspiring writers achieve their literary goals. A renowned writer in his own right, Gardner also teaches creative writing at various universities and is considered an expert on the subject. The book was written as a practical instructional handbook that effectively explains the techniques of good writing. It’s essential reading for anyone looking to make the leap from reader to writer because it has been praised by many notable authors.

Throughout this book, Gardner highlights common mistakes that people make when writing. He offers advice on how to avoid these problems and provides examples of each problem. For example, he explains how to structure a sentence properly and what not to do when using certain words. His explanations are simple and easy-to-follow, but they might seem basic for more experienced writers.

Gardner believes that great literature has a moral core. He says that great works of literature are not just entertaining but also create a dream-like state in the reader’s mind, allowing him or her to better understand his or her own mind. Great literary works reinforce the finest qualities in human beings and call into question all that makes people feel uneasy about their own shortcomings.

Great literature is timeless and reveals eternal truths. The act of writing, especially revising, makes writers consider their own thought processes as well as the themes they’re trying to convey.

Gardner believes that Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle applies to both physics and fiction. The principle states that the mere fact that a physicist is observing certain particles inherently influences those particles. On the same note, Gardner believes that writers’ personal styles influence what they write about, affecting their truthfulness.

According to Gardner, a novel is like a symphony in that it recaps what has happened before and brings the themes of the book to its end. This creates order and meaning in an otherwise chaotic world. It also makes sense because all actions have consequences that lead up to some final truth for the reader. Unlike real life, high literature demonstrates cause and effect of every occurrence so there is at least one morally sound moment where good people are rewarded and bad people are punished.

This is the way that Gardner sees literature. He believes that novels have an inherent moral structure, and therefore they offer a reflection of the world as the author would like it to be. This is a very optimistic view of literature, one which may not reflect modern day abstract literature in which there isn’t necessarily an easy out or satisfying conclusion, but rather leaves the reader to decide for themselves what it all means.

Gardner defines a serious writer as someone who can strike a balance between the darkness of life and the light that illuminates it. The best writers combine intuition and intellect, working with inspired madness in bursts of creative inspiration while also tempering it with discipline and persistence.

Gardner believes that the true artist is a person who has multiple perspectives and struggles with his or her personal life. The writer must be able to observe things from many different angles and avoid letting biases get in the way of telling the truth. In The Art of Fiction, Gardner emphasizes that writers have a responsibility to their readers when they create literature, while outlining specific techniques for creating high-quality work.