Writing as a Way of Life: A Book About Art, Craft, and Devotion

by Brian Morton

Overview

In Writing as a Way of Life: A Book About Art, Craft, and Devotion, novelist and memoirist Brian Morton (Starting Out in the Evening) provides writers with a guidebook for finding the psychic equipment they'll need to remain committed to their craft over the long haul. Drawing on a rich and varied career as a writer and teacher, Morton gives writers at every level of experience a masterclass in how to deepen their tenacity and resilience.

Weaving together stories from the lives of literary masters like Virginia Woolf, Henry James, and Anton Chekhov and lessons gleaned from a surprising array of artists and thinkers including Joni Mitchell, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Miss Manners, Morton reveals writing to be a calling akin to meditation or prayer. Filled with practical, actionable tips for developing and sustaining a habit of writing that will last a lifetime, Morton has written a generous, funny, humane, and friendly guide for anyone who writes and anyone who wants to write.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625571779
Publisher:	Black Lawrence Press
Publication date:	09/09/2025
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Brian Morton's previous books include the novels Starting Out in the Evening and Florence Gordon and the memoir Tasha. A member of the faculty in writing at Sarah Lawrence College, he has received the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Koret Jewish Book Award for Fiction, and the Pushcart Prize, and has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Kirkus Prize for Fiction. The movie adaptation of Starting Out in the Evening premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007.

Table of Contents

Make It a Habit Trust Your Stuff Interlude: Who Am I To Be Writing This Book? Write It For Yourself: On Publication Instructions for the Hitbodedut: On Literary Craft "A True Poet Can Have No Competition": On Envy How to Keep Going

Editorial Reviews

Writing as a Way of Life is an incredibly generous book and reflects everything Brian Morton is like as a teacher. He trusts the writer in front of him to take what they need and leave what they don't, while providing encouragement and common-sense advice, as well as permission to play around, fail often, and keep going anyway. —Ilana Masad, author of Beings and All My Mother's Lovers

Of all the writers I have known, Brian Morton is the most generous, the most dedicated, and the most thoughtful. In Writing as a Way of Life, a distillation of five decades of reading and thinking about writing, he asks the most profound questions: Is it possible to write and to live? To be a writer and a decent human being? Does it matter if you know where to place an apostrophe? This is a book both practical and inspiring; both deeply ethical and very funny. It takes wisdom from Tolstoy, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf, but also Major League Baseball. This is a book to be read, and re-read, and cherished. —Keith Gessen, author of A Terrible Country and All the Sad Young Literary Men

Intimate, practical, and above all generous, Writing as a Way of Life belongs on the shortlist of great books about art-making—not as a problem to be solved, but as a reality to be lived. This isn’t to say that the 'craft’ of writing gets overlooked: Morton’s discussion of plot alone is worth the price of admission. But rarely has a writer spoken with such focus on, and endearing frankness about, ‘the psychic equipment you’ll need to keep going.’ Long one of our most distinguished novelists, readers, and teachers, Brian Morton provides an indispensable guide for those embarking on the writing life. —Garth Risk Hallberg, New York Times best-selling author of City on Fire and The Second Coming

Brian Morton’s writing advice is brilliant, funny, bold, and eminently quotable. With his signature humor and wide-ranging intelligence, he sweeps us along into the heart of the writing life. —Rachel Kadish, author of The Weight of Ink

Brian Morton was my fiction seminar professor. He is every bit as generous and nurturing in Writing as a Way of Life as he was to us in grad school. This book will help your craft and it will also help your soul. —Sidik Fofana, author of Stories from the Tenants Downstairs

From the Publisher