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David Morrell's Lessons From a Lifetime of Writing is a book that grabs you from the beginning. Morrell's cutting honesty and intrepid storytelling combine to make this book a worthwhile read for any budding writer.

Morrell begins the book with a few reality checks for writers. The average writer makes about $6,500 a year. Morrell knew from an early age that he wanted to be a writer but also knew the obstacles that lay in his path. It took him eleven years of writing to get his first novel First Blood published. But this same book launched his career and led to a slew of movies based on his Rambo character (though he admits he made little off of the sequels to the hit film).

Morrell focuses early in his book on attacking both writers block and the movie industry. He says if a writer is suffering from writers block he needs to start asking himself a lot of questions. First question the story: Does it sound interesting? If it doesn't then maybe you're doing something wrong. Morrell then attacks the movie industry for forcing its writing style on books. In the eighties "high-concept" movies and books became the norm. "High concept refers to an intriguing one-line description of a story." Morrell views that these new philosophies forced writers to condense plot driven books to make them simpler and easier to read.

Morrell brings up the old adage of "show don't tell," however sometimes you have to tell. It can take several pages of showing to do what several paragraphs of telling can do.

Perhaps the most intriguing and well-rounded parts of the book is Morrell's observations on viewpoint. He writes that some of the most common mistakes a writer makes are in his choice of viewpoint and focusing on one action instead of another. An author should remember to use the senses more and direct action less to set a scene. Morrell states that if you can change a story from first person to third person without losing anything substantial then likely it's a third person story.

Morrell then provides a dead-on glance into the realm of editing. You have about twenty pages to impress your editor. If you're a proven author there might be more leeway but for first time novelists you have twenty pages at the most to show your skills. An editor has stacks of things to read so if your book doesn't catch his interest early you might lose your chance.

Description style is a weak point for many young writers. Everything is visual. New writers ignore the other senses. This causes a story to be "one-dimensional." Describing a characters physique is a chore for many writers. Morrell advises to "emphasize the effect that the character's appearance has on others."

Morrell doesn't have anything revolutionary to say about the publishing business, but he does have some useful advice and interesting tales. He understands the author who has sat all alone at a book signing. He's been there. He has some great ideas for increasing the popularity of a book: the most beneficial being to get your book in airport bookstores (which outsell many other venues) by convincing workers who choose the books at the warehouses to feature your book above another. Sounds hard but this is what many top-selling writers have done to increase interest in their books.

Morrell's writing is pleasant to read, as are his stories, and should be noted for anyone aspiring to be a writer. But no life is perfect, and if this book has any moral it's that success doesn't necessarily breed happinessin truth it warrants more hard work.

Learn more about this author, Jacob Malewitz.
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