Listen free for 30 days

  • The Way of the Writer

  • Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling
  • Written by: Charles Johnson
  • Narrated by: Mirron Willis
  • Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
The Way of the Writer cover art

The Way of the Writer

Written by: Charles Johnson
Narrated by: Mirron Willis
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $17.81

Buy Now for $17.81

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

An award-winning novelist, philosopher, essayist, screenwriter, professor, and cartoonist, Charles Johnson has devoted his life to creative pursuit. His 1990 National Book Award-winning novel Middle Passage is a modern classic, revered as much for its daring plot as its philosophical underpinnings.

For 33 years Johnson taught and mentored students in the art and craft of creative writing. The Way of the Writer is his record of those years and the coda to a kaleidoscopic, boundary-shattering career. Organized into six accessible, easy-to-navigate sections, The Way of the Writer is both a literary reflection on the creative impulse and a utilitarian guide to the writing process. Johnson shares his lessons and exercises from the classroom, starting with word choice, sentence structure, and narrative voice and delving into the mechanics of scene, dialogue, plot, and storytelling before exploring the larger questions at stake for the serious writer: What separates literature from industrial fiction? What lies at the heart of the creative impulse? How does one navigate the literary world? And how are philosophy and fiction concomitant?

©2016 Charles Johnson (P)2017 Tantor

What the critics say

"A meditation on the daily routines and mental habits of a writer...the book radiates warmth...a writer's true education might start in institutions, it seems, but for Johnson it is more a lineage of good, memorable talk." ( New York Times)

What listeners say about The Way of the Writer

Average Customer Ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.