The Making of a Writer, Volume 1: Journals, 1961-1963

by Gail Godwin, Rob Neufeld (Editor)

Gail Godwin was twenty-four years old and working as a waitress in the North Carolina mountains when she “I want to be everybody who is great; I want to create everything that has ever been created.” It is a declaration that only a wildly ambitious young writer would make in the privacy of her journal. In the heady days of her literary apprenticeship, Godwin kept a daily chronicle of her dreams and desires, her travels, love affairs, struggles, and breakthroughs. Now, at the urging of her friend Joyce Carol Oates, Godwin has distilled these early journals, which run from 1961 to 1963, to their brilliant and charming essence.
The Making of a Writer opens during the feverish period following the breakup of Godwin’s first marriage and her stint as a reporter for The Miami Herald. Aware that she is entering one of the great turning points of her life as she prepares to move to Europe, Godwin writes of the “100 different hungers” that consume her on the eve of departure. A whirlwind trip to New York, the passengers and their stories on board the SS Oklahoma, the shock of her first encounters with Danish customs (and Danish men)–Godwin wonderfully conveys the excitement of a writer embracing a welter of new experience.
After a long, dark Scandinavian winter and a gloriously romantic interlude in the Canary Islands, Godwin moves to London and embarks on the passionate engagements that will inspire some of her finest stories. She records the pleasures of soaking in the human drama on long rambles through the London streets–and the torment of lonely Sundays spent wrestling these impressions into prose. She shares her passion for Henry James, Marcel Proust, Lawrence Durrell, Thomas Wolfe–and her terror of facing twenty-six with nothing to show but a rejected novel and a stack of debts. “I do not feel like a failure,” Godwin insists as she sits down yet again to the empty page. “I will keep writing, harder than ever.”
Like Virginia Woolf’s A Writer’s Diary, Gail Godwin’s journals brim with the urgency and wit of a brilliant literary mind meeting the world head on. An inspired and inspiring volume, The Making of a Writer opens a shining window into the life and craft of a great writer just coming into her own.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Memoir

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 10, 2006

About the author

Gail Kathleen Godwin is an American novelist and short story writer. She has published one non-fiction work, two collections of short stories, and eleven novels, three of which have been nominated for the National Book Award and five of which have made the New York Times Bestseller List.

Godwin's body of work has garnered many honors, including three National Book Award nominations, a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants for both fiction and libretto writing, and the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Five of her novels have been on the New York Times best seller list.
Godwin lives and writes in Woodstock, New York.

Reviews

[Geeta · Rating 4 out of 5]

The journal covers Godwin's early years in England, when she was working for the U.S. Travel Bureau and struggling to find a balance between her writer life and her social life. She spends a lot of time agonizing about certain men, obsessing about office politics and silly slights, and all of that just made me so grateful I don't have to be 25 again. Ever. And it also made me feel better about my twenties, that I wasn't the only person to waste hours of my life--hours that could have been spent writing!--"chasing after boys" (to quote my father).

Some people will find the footnote irritating, especially if they have read Godwin's other work or don't want to; I really liked knowing how many years passed between the appearance of an idea in the journal and the final story (15 years seems to be the norm here). This did not send me rushing back to my old journals since I can't read my own handwriting, but it was nice to see that someone else takes a long time between initial idea and final product.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a long-standing journal writer myself (though not a writer), I found this fascinating. It's the diary of a writer, certainly - who mines her life and the people she meets for the experiences and words that will inspire her work. But it's also the journal of a recently divorced twenty-something young woman who has embarked on an exciting, frustrating, and rewarding chapter of her life as an expatriate first in Copenhagen, then London. I could not put it down.

[Dottie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating -- real life jopurnaling, trial story ideas and bits and pieces and the editorial interwoven into the whole. A new view of one of my favorite writers, certainly.

[Raima Larter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have been a huge fan of Gail Godwin for years and have read many of her novels, so I thought this would be as good as her other books. It was interesting at the beginning, but quickly devolved into venting about her coworkers, trying to work out her feelings about romantic interests, and worrying if she was going to be able to pay her rent -- in other words, just like my own journals. I think the editor who apparently convinced her to publish these thought the entries showed her development as a writer, but I don't see it. I did like the glimpse into what the world was like for a young woman in the early 60s, a fraught time socially, but that was about it. Remind me to never publish my own journals...

[Gwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this book back up after a long hiatus. As a journaler and non-writer, I was interested to learn more about Godwin's process of recording her thoughts and life. Best read in pieces instead of one sitting.

[C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am the same age as Gail when she began these journals. Throughout reading it, I felt very connected to her, because I'm a writer as well, in the process of self publishing my first book. I've experienced a lot of the same emotional stress and doubt that she went through. Lovely read. 3/5 stars.

[Marietje · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nothing interesting. Why did this need to be published. She should have kept it to herself.

[Tara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book contains segments from Godwin's journals. It chronicles her experiences as a struggling young writer. It is mostly unedited excerpts, but includes some commentary to help bridge the gaps between entries and to clarify some of the entries. It has some gems for those who are interested in the creative writing process. Her life is interesting too; I did enjoy getting a sense of what the world was like for a career minded woman in the early 60s. However, I also found her behavior to be reckless and immoral, and I didn't care for her treatment of others or her overall views on the world. I did not like wading through all her personal problems and affairs to get to a the few pieces of wisdom she had to offer. Let's just say if I have to live and act like she does in these journals to be a successful writer, then I will settle for being a mediocre writer.

[Bowie Rowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I began reading this when I was 23 after a former teacher gave it to me as a graduation gift, and even more so, as encouragement to continue writing as I moved across the country for my first post-college publishing job. I read it on and off from 2010 until this year. Conveniently, I was about Godwin's age when this collection of her journals starts and stops. I loved them and dog eared what looks like almost every other page. There is remarkable insight throughout these pages and I found continual comfort in reading about Godwin's process and seeing how one story evolved over a period of years before she was able to write it the way it needed to be written. This will be a book I go back to continually for comfort, inspiration, and perspective.

[K.M. Weiland · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book didn't quite float my bar of soap. But there a lot of subjective reasons for that.

1. I've never read Godwin's fiction, so I have no connection to her as author or a person.

2. I found it difficult to relate to her lifestyle and personal problems.

3. I was hoping for more writing-related tidbits, instead of Godwin's social life.

The tidbits I did find were interesting and encouraging, as comisserative comparison between authors often is. But, all in all, through no fault of the author's, I just didn't find much in here that applied to me.

[Sam Mills · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book I'll dip into as a reference and for inspiration. I never was a fan of Godwin's stories but that doesn't always place the letters and journals out of bounds.

I tried starting at the start, but by the time I was 20 pages in I actively disliked her and was bored, to boot. Any successful writer is bound to offer a few nuggets of wisdom, though, and I'll persist--randomly--in this and the second volume, just published.

[Josephine Ensign · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this collection (and its companion, Volume 2) to be an interesting read, but coming on the heels of reading and re-reading Virginia Woolf's 'making of a writer' diaries, these pale to the point of disappearing and disappointing.