Writing with the Master: How One of the Worlds Bestselling Authors Fixed My Book and Changed My Life

(Hardback)

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With seven unpublished novels wasting away on his hard drive, Tony Vanderwarker is astonished when John Grisham offers to take him under his wing and teach him the secrets of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. Its the three hundred pages in the middle thats the hard part.
To ensure his plot doesnt 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 decadesfor instance, Youve got to hook your reader in the first forty pages or youll 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. Its a roller coaster ride, sometimes hilarious, and often full of ups and downs. Grishams critiques and margin notes to Tony reveal his nimble imagination and plot development genius. For Grisham fans, Vanderwarkers memoir pulls back the curtain on his writing secrets, and for aspiring writers, its a master class in thriller writing.
In the end, Tony resolves to take Grishams 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.

Reviews

Must reading for both aspiring thriller authors and die-hard Grisham fans.Kirkus Reviews
Must reading for both aspiring thriller authors and die-hard Grisham fans.Kirkus Reviews

Author Bio

Tony Vanderwarker grew up in New England and attended Andover and Yale. He did a two-year stint in the Peace Corps before graduating from NYU with a degree in cinema. Tony worked in the film business in New York before he went into advertising in Chicago and ended up founding his own agency. Tony cashed out to move to Virginia and write on a horse farm outside of Charlottesville, where he lives with his wife, Anne, four dogs, and a donkey named Jethro.