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Process: The Writing Lives of Great Authors
Ernest Hemingway, Zadie Smith, Joan Didion, Franz Kafka, David Foster Wallace, and more. In Process , acclaimed journalist Sarah Stodola examines the creative methods of literature’s most transformative figures. Each chapter contains a mini biography of one of the world’s most lauded authors, focused solely on his or her writing process. Unlike how-to books that preach writing techniques or rules, Process puts the true methods of writers on display in their most captivating within the context of the lives from which they sprang. Drawn from both existing material and original research and interviews, Stodola brings to light the fascinating, unique, and illuminating techniques behind these literary behemoths.
270 pages, Paperback
First published January 20, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 161 reviews
March 12, 2021
The fourth star might be for the genre. I'm not sure. I'm a sucker for books about writing. They either assuage my conscience for not writing more formally or inspire me to do so. Maybe both.
Plus, this author shares my fondness for gathering quotes from what she reads, and she seems to have a knack for sharing apt ones I want to store away.
Plus, this author shares my fondness for gathering quotes from what she reads, and she seems to have a knack for sharing apt ones I want to store away.
April 2, 2017
É sempre um prazer ler (neste caso ouvir) livros sobre livros, autores, rotinas dos autores e outras peculiaridades que caracterizam as vidas literárias (e não só) daqueles que tantas horas de puro deleite nos proporcionam.
January 11, 2016
I received an ARC of this title from the publisher via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Published by Amazon Publishing, January 20, 2015
What are we looking for when we look at the lives of great writers? I would assume many of us want the dirt; the broken relationships, alcohol problems, madness and eccentric behaviors we associate with artistic types. This is not a book about those things.
Process: The Writing Lives of Great Authors, is exactly what it says it is. These are not biographies of writers in the grand sense, but a focused look at the schedules, behaviors and work preferences of particularly successful and memorable authors. In the introduction, Stodola states her intent to create a book that is of interest to both writers and general readers, and while probably true, I think it may skew slightly more towards writers than fans of particular authors. The information that has been rigorously gathered by Stodola (and rigorously cited- this book is 20% end notes) is fascinating, though occasionally on the dry side. There are bits of interesting trivia to be had, and lots of encouragement if you are looking for writers that succeeded despite strange or unexpected working habits.
All of the writers chosen are novelists, in that they have published at least one novel, and all began publication in the 20th and 21st centuries. The chapters each cover a pair of writers, placed together either because of a similarity or to compare and contrast. There are the Nine-to-Fivers (Kafka and Morrison), the Productive Procrastinators (DFW and Richard Price), and others defined by their particular style or habits. Later chapters contrast the Social Butterfly Fitzgerald with the Lone Wolf Roth. The closing chapter looks at the different approaches of Margaret Atwood and Zadie Smith in relation to technology (specifically the internet and social media). Each is straightforward and mostly undramatic, with lots of quotable facts sprinkled throughout, like Virginia Woolf’s preference for purple ink, or Vladimir Nabokov’s habit of writing in the bathtub. Each author’s entry ends with “A Day in the Writer’s Life” segment, which is interesting but unnecessary, as it really just sums up what was already covered in the longer text.
In the end, what Process does, aside from providing an enjoyable look at famous authors, is show us that there is no one correct or commendable way to write. There is always a lot of talk about writers absolutely having to write something every day, establish set times and word counts, which the many examples in this book proves to be untrue, or at least nebulous. There is no one way to write, and even the hardest circumstances don’t have to limit a writer’s potential, if the drive is there. Joyce went blind, Woolf and DFW dealt with severe mental illness, Nabokov was a perpetual refugee, Morrison was a single mother, Kafka was thwarted by his family, Rushdie was driven into hiding by a fatwa- and yet they all worked within their limits to the best of their abilities, and we are still reading their work and analyzing their lives today.
Cross-posted at Booklikes: http://atroskity.booklikes.com/post/1...
Published by Amazon Publishing, January 20, 2015
What are we looking for when we look at the lives of great writers? I would assume many of us want the dirt; the broken relationships, alcohol problems, madness and eccentric behaviors we associate with artistic types. This is not a book about those things.
Process: The Writing Lives of Great Authors, is exactly what it says it is. These are not biographies of writers in the grand sense, but a focused look at the schedules, behaviors and work preferences of particularly successful and memorable authors. In the introduction, Stodola states her intent to create a book that is of interest to both writers and general readers, and while probably true, I think it may skew slightly more towards writers than fans of particular authors. The information that has been rigorously gathered by Stodola (and rigorously cited- this book is 20% end notes) is fascinating, though occasionally on the dry side. There are bits of interesting trivia to be had, and lots of encouragement if you are looking for writers that succeeded despite strange or unexpected working habits.
All of the writers chosen are novelists, in that they have published at least one novel, and all began publication in the 20th and 21st centuries. The chapters each cover a pair of writers, placed together either because of a similarity or to compare and contrast. There are the Nine-to-Fivers (Kafka and Morrison), the Productive Procrastinators (DFW and Richard Price), and others defined by their particular style or habits. Later chapters contrast the Social Butterfly Fitzgerald with the Lone Wolf Roth. The closing chapter looks at the different approaches of Margaret Atwood and Zadie Smith in relation to technology (specifically the internet and social media). Each is straightforward and mostly undramatic, with lots of quotable facts sprinkled throughout, like Virginia Woolf’s preference for purple ink, or Vladimir Nabokov’s habit of writing in the bathtub. Each author’s entry ends with “A Day in the Writer’s Life” segment, which is interesting but unnecessary, as it really just sums up what was already covered in the longer text.
In the end, what Process does, aside from providing an enjoyable look at famous authors, is show us that there is no one correct or commendable way to write. There is always a lot of talk about writers absolutely having to write something every day, establish set times and word counts, which the many examples in this book proves to be untrue, or at least nebulous. There is no one way to write, and even the hardest circumstances don’t have to limit a writer’s potential, if the drive is there. Joyce went blind, Woolf and DFW dealt with severe mental illness, Nabokov was a perpetual refugee, Morrison was a single mother, Kafka was thwarted by his family, Rushdie was driven into hiding by a fatwa- and yet they all worked within their limits to the best of their abilities, and we are still reading their work and analyzing their lives today.
Cross-posted at Booklikes: http://atroskity.booklikes.com/post/1...
October 12, 2025
Mildly interesting book about how accomplished authors find their ideas and get them out as books.
This is not a "how-to-write" manual. Neither is it an in-depth exploration.
Enjoyable, but nothing much in it.
This is not a "how-to-write" manual. Neither is it an in-depth exploration.
Enjoyable, but nothing much in it.
January 27, 2024
Inspired by how my friend BJ reviews books, I am giving this book 4 out of 5 stars, not because I 4 out of 5 enjoyed it, but because I think it generally achieved its goal. The book promises to describe the writing processes of "great authors", i.e. the kinds of authors you read in high school in the United States. And it mostly delivers (but with some oversimplifications, like putting Philip Roth in the "Lone Wolf" category because that's vaguely how he lived later in his life, but he sure didn't use to).
The essays were formulaic (as they sort of had to be), covering the daily schedules of these authors, the environments in which they wrote, who their literary inspirations were, and their Life Troubles, with a synopsis at the end of each chapter. I did find the attempt to group authors into pairs by category (The Nine-to-Fivers vs. Two Takes on the Digital Age vs. Slow and Steady) contrived. The chosen authors are all different enough that one has to strain to group them in pairs like this. I get the temptation though.
At its best, reading this book felt like reading about the differences in people's brains, like, you know how some people do not create mental images in their mind, whereas others have photographic recall of everything they've ever seen? That sort of thing. The super slow authors' processes were wild to read about; I cannot imagine my creative mind ever working that slow. 90 words a day? Come on now. Then again, it took me five years to read this book. I asked myself many a time if I should just dnf it, but then I was like, how does Zadie Smith write, I have to know, just...not today, or this month, or this year.
It was cool to see that each of these big-name authors was/is really different, that many had debilitating addictions that interacted with their craft, that most of them are nuts. This overall picture gave me hope that my idiosyncracies can be channeled someday into Great Literature.
I admire Sarah Stodola's research and craft—it's cool she took on this project; it's the kind of thing that I think about doing sometimes, collecting the habits of people I admire.
But my most intense emotion after finishing this book is relief that I can, after five years, finally mark it as Done.
The essays were formulaic (as they sort of had to be), covering the daily schedules of these authors, the environments in which they wrote, who their literary inspirations were, and their Life Troubles, with a synopsis at the end of each chapter. I did find the attempt to group authors into pairs by category (The Nine-to-Fivers vs. Two Takes on the Digital Age vs. Slow and Steady) contrived. The chosen authors are all different enough that one has to strain to group them in pairs like this. I get the temptation though.
At its best, reading this book felt like reading about the differences in people's brains, like, you know how some people do not create mental images in their mind, whereas others have photographic recall of everything they've ever seen? That sort of thing. The super slow authors' processes were wild to read about; I cannot imagine my creative mind ever working that slow. 90 words a day? Come on now. Then again, it took me five years to read this book. I asked myself many a time if I should just dnf it, but then I was like, how does Zadie Smith write, I have to know, just...not today, or this month, or this year.
It was cool to see that each of these big-name authors was/is really different, that many had debilitating addictions that interacted with their craft, that most of them are nuts. This overall picture gave me hope that my idiosyncracies can be channeled someday into Great Literature.
I admire Sarah Stodola's research and craft—it's cool she took on this project; it's the kind of thing that I think about doing sometimes, collecting the habits of people I admire.
But my most intense emotion after finishing this book is relief that I can, after five years, finally mark it as Done.
September 4, 2021
3.5 - some of these can get really dry. but I love knowing that writers are just collectively unhinged and every weird habit of yours has been done by others or worse
November 13, 2018
I write a bit of fiction myself and it’s always interesting to take a peek behind the curtain to see how successful writers operate. In Process, Sarah Stodola shares a series of profiles detailing, briefly, the writing lives of famous authors ranging from Edith Wharton to Junot Diaz. This book is interesting and inspiring, and even has a good idea or two that could be helpful to aspiring writers. It’s comforting to see how much the great novelists struggle to get words on the page.
Stephen King’s “On Writing” is even better than this book. So if you’re a King fan who wants writing help and inspiration On Writing might be a better place to go for it.
Stephen King’s “On Writing” is even better than this book. So if you’re a King fan who wants writing help and inspiration On Writing might be a better place to go for it.
August 25, 2023
Made me excited to get back to my writing. I loved seeing how different every writer’s process is. There really are no rules!!
January 29, 2016
This book was just what I needed. As a writer it's great to hear how other writers have done it. Not so much about how they crafted sentences or came up with complex plot structures, but rather the quirky details; how some refused to work before noon, how others could only party in Paris, and write in the states, while one preferred typing in a room painted black. The overall message is that there isn't a precise recipe for greatness, but that you must create your own path and pave it however you like, and if you want to rip it up one day and pour asphalt where it was once cobblestone, good for you.
A must have book for fans of fine literature, and for those who itch to put pen to paper.
A must have book for fans of fine literature, and for those who itch to put pen to paper.
May 18, 2017
TEN stars for this book! From Kafka to Kerouc, Didion to Diaz, this paints the big picture of how writers write. Each author, from the classic to the current are profiled in terms of their writing lives, techniques, dreams and a day in the life. Myths are dispelled, truths revealed, and enough affirmation and inspiration for all who endeavor to put worlds on the page. I mean, of course, words. Or did I? This belongs on your writers shelf between Anatomy of Story and Xray Writing.
Excellent on Audible!
Excellent on Audible!
December 31, 2014
Loved this book. It's perfect for someone that loves reading about authors and how they write. I thought the author sounded legit, informed, and was straightforward. I liked how she stayed on course and didn't get lost in the author's personal lives no matter how crazy they were. One thing she used the word "crystalline" entirely too much!
February 4, 2019
Useful, but only so so
This book gives some interesting insights into how, when,.and where famous writers do their thing, as well as their background and inspirations. However, the sections tend to be slow and repetitive, and the authors are mostly in literary fiction. A dozen or so contemporary popular writers added to the mix would have been nice.
This book gives some interesting insights into how, when,.and where famous writers do their thing, as well as their background and inspirations. However, the sections tend to be slow and repetitive, and the authors are mostly in literary fiction. A dozen or so contemporary popular writers added to the mix would have been nice.
October 28, 2015
It's good to know that the greats were all crazy too.
Everyone has their own mountain to scale and I am not special.
Loved the 'Day in the life of a writer' sections they gave me a lot of great ideas to test out.
Very interesting read.
Everyone has their own mountain to scale and I am not special.
Loved the 'Day in the life of a writer' sections they gave me a lot of great ideas to test out.
Very interesting read.
March 19, 2019
This should be required reading for avid readers so they can appreciate the process an author endures. Likewise, any one aspiring to write might benefit from this book.
August 5, 2019
This book had been recommended by a member of a local writers group I'd attended. It includes a concise, and comprehensive glimpse into the writing styles, and lifestyles, of 18 well-known authors, with a great summary paragraph at the end of each segment. I thought it was helpful, because it gave personal information on each, with some struggling to get anything written down, yet completing great works of literature. It shows how writing draws from the very depths of the author's heart and soul, and in every case incorporated parts of that person's life, developed, restructured into different persons by means of the characters in the novel. The characters taking on a life of their own, and follow the path placed before them by the author. What was most amazing to me was the fact that many of the novels did, in fact, take years to bring to fruition, then finally, to publication. It gave me a sense of it being, somehow, okay, and to let the work-in-progress do just that: progress, at its own time, in its own way, because that novel does, in the end, have a life of its own. I definitely recommend this book as a valuable read, no matter by a reader, or writer, or reader/writer...lol; really, I think everyone would find this an interesting book.
March 2, 2020
Absolutely fascinating! I am an author and always suppose I am the only one who writes in pieces, going this way and that, abandoning books and taking them up again, changing the focus, rewriting one para forty times and cutting it out and rewriting it to one line and putting it elsewhere.....but this is just the path, and each book has its own path and own reason. So it confirms I have many great and talented colleagues, some very brilliant indeed, who have stumbled in their own way towards completing a book! Its very nice to know my crazy creative way is normal!
July 15, 2022
Fascinating glimpse into the writing process of famous authors.
July 9, 2021
At this point, everything about the process is a learning experience. Evidently, nobody has it easy.
September 14, 2024
I took more than 20 days to finish a book which is very rare!! But I absolutely loved it and enjoyed reading it in bits and pieces. If you want to get into the heads of your favourite authors then this book is for you!!! This book was on Kindle Unlimited.
February 7, 2015
I received an eARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
"Process" is a book about writers and their routines (or lack thereof), collating information about a vast number of writings, from Ernest Hemingway and Virginia Woolf through to Junot Diaz and David Foster Wallace, amongst many others. The book itself is split into sections, aggregating authors with similar processes (speed of writing, avoidance or embracing of the Internet, for example) into each section.
Stoloda has performed an impressive amount of research to write this book, and should one wish, there are an abundance of footnotes to chase up on individual authors if you wish to read more about them and their process. I personally find this kind of stuff fascinating, and what's most fascinating of all is how much individual processes differ. If there's a clear message from this book, it's that there is no magic bullet to writing process, but merely what works for each individual.
If you're a writer yourself, or simply fascinated by writers, then "Process" is well worth getting hold of.
"Process" is a book about writers and their routines (or lack thereof), collating information about a vast number of writings, from Ernest Hemingway and Virginia Woolf through to Junot Diaz and David Foster Wallace, amongst many others. The book itself is split into sections, aggregating authors with similar processes (speed of writing, avoidance or embracing of the Internet, for example) into each section.
Stoloda has performed an impressive amount of research to write this book, and should one wish, there are an abundance of footnotes to chase up on individual authors if you wish to read more about them and their process. I personally find this kind of stuff fascinating, and what's most fascinating of all is how much individual processes differ. If there's a clear message from this book, it's that there is no magic bullet to writing process, but merely what works for each individual.
If you're a writer yourself, or simply fascinated by writers, then "Process" is well worth getting hold of.
July 18, 2015
Process is a collection of prosaic essays describing the inspirations, works, and lives of eighteen well-known authors. Your romantic notions of writers in cozy sweaters effortlessly channeling otherworldly inspiration by fires in quiet woodsy cabins near lakes won't survive this book. In fact, after finishing this book I wondered how it is that "successful writer" doesn't regularly outdo "alaskan fisherman" on lists of the world's most hazardous occupations. Kafka, David Foster Wallace, Orwell, Woolf, Kerouac, Hemingway, Fitzgerald etc etc got the kind of alone time introverts fantasize about and yet their struggles to accept the unclosable gaps between their written words and their aspirations frequently proved unsurvivable.
November 21, 2016
3.5-4 stars, leaning toward 4.
This book is exactly as it is described. If you are interested in the topic, you will find something interesting here. Every chapter, even if you haven't read anything by the author featured, is interesting, engaging, and informative. However, I did find that I liked the chapters better that were about authors whose works I was at least a little bit familiar with. One or two authors I was 100% new to, and those chapters I was less into because it felt like I had a bit of info missing. So, this is not quite an introductory book, but it is not advanced reading either (meaning, you can read it if you have a decent interest in reading or writing, but you don't have to have a PhD on every writer to get it).
Not much else to say, would recommend.
This book is exactly as it is described. If you are interested in the topic, you will find something interesting here. Every chapter, even if you haven't read anything by the author featured, is interesting, engaging, and informative. However, I did find that I liked the chapters better that were about authors whose works I was at least a little bit familiar with. One or two authors I was 100% new to, and those chapters I was less into because it felt like I had a bit of info missing. So, this is not quite an introductory book, but it is not advanced reading either (meaning, you can read it if you have a decent interest in reading or writing, but you don't have to have a PhD on every writer to get it).
Not much else to say, would recommend.
June 7, 2017
4.5/5
Process was as a pleasure to read, from start to end. I'm a sucker for anything about the lives of authors, as well as their creative process, so this was right up my alley. Almost every chapter was interesting in its own right, save for a couple whose work/process didn't really grab me (sorry, Richard Price and Edith Wharton) and the Toni Morrison chapter in particular made me go pick up my current read, Home, and add a great many other books to my ever-growing wishlist. If you're interested in the authors, or in writing, or even just hearing how creative giants came to be, I'd recommend picking this up.
Process was as a pleasure to read, from start to end. I'm a sucker for anything about the lives of authors, as well as their creative process, so this was right up my alley. Almost every chapter was interesting in its own right, save for a couple whose work/process didn't really grab me (sorry, Richard Price and Edith Wharton) and the Toni Morrison chapter in particular made me go pick up my current read, Home, and add a great many other books to my ever-growing wishlist. If you're interested in the authors, or in writing, or even just hearing how creative giants came to be, I'd recommend picking this up.
February 15, 2015
Fun book that discusses the writing process of about 14 writers: Kafka, Foster Wallace, Nabokov, Woolf, Orwell, Zadie Smith, Wharton, etc. I've seen a few from this genre in the past few years, but this is the one to read. It's more in-depth with new and different information. That is, not just the typical or already well-known stories...the author digs a bit deeper. Fun read if you are a writer.
October 14, 2015
I would've enjoyed more diversity in the selection of authors, and perhaps a different arrangement in chapters. There was a stretch in the middle of chapter after chapter of solely male authors and found myself wanting it broken up with more female authors. Otherwise, this was a wonderful glimpse into the writing lives of well-known authors. There were only a few authors I didn't recognize at all and now I feel some obligation to read works by the authors touched on whom I've yet to read.
May 9, 2017
Top three things I learned from this book:
1. I am woefully under-read in the classics. (Though I'm not really sure I care to remedy that; I've never liked classics much.)
2. George Orwell's real name: Eric Blair. I find this a bit disappointing for some reason.
3. Jack Kerouac was "meticulously organized" and "not a free spirit"; he also never learned to drive, despite having written the iconic travel novel On the Road. I find this all hilarious.
1. I am woefully under-read in the classics. (Though I'm not really sure I care to remedy that; I've never liked classics much.)
2. George Orwell's real name: Eric Blair. I find this a bit disappointing for some reason.
3. Jack Kerouac was "meticulously organized" and "not a free spirit"; he also never learned to drive, despite having written the iconic travel novel On the Road. I find this all hilarious.
September 5, 2017
This book was a very enjoyable collection of insights into the lives, writing lives and writing habits of well known authors. It was a pretty diverse group - Kafka, Hemingway, Zadie Smith, Virginia Woolf - with some attempt at grouping them according to broad writing habits which didn't quite work for me. I was fascinated by the individual entries, although some were more interesting than others but overall it didn't quite draw me in as much as I had expected.
May 22, 2015
This book is not bad, but if you're interested in reading this kind of thing about great writers, I recommend checking out the Paris Review's Interviews, which are available online for free: http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews. (Not everyone in the book is on there, but there are tons more.)
January 24, 2016
Parts of the book were interesting, some weren't. It was a completely disconnected compilation of descriptions of authors.
December 11, 2017
Like candy.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 161 reviews