Read Like A Writer

There are two ways to learn how to write fiction: by reading it and by writing it. Yes, you can learn lots about writing stories in workshops, in writing classes and writing groups, at writers' conferences. You can learn technique and process by reading the dozens of books like this one on fiction writing and by reading articles in writers' magazines. But the best teachers of fiction are the great works of fiction themselves. You can learn more about the structure of a short story by reading Anton Chekhov's 'Heartache' than you can in a semester of Creative Writing 101. If you read like a writer, that is, which means you have to read everything twice, at least. When you read a story or novel the first time, just let it happen. Enjoy the journey. When you've finished, you know where the story took you, and now you can go back and reread, and this time notice how the writer reached that destination. Notice the choices he made at each chapter, each sentence, each word. (Every word is a choice.) You see now how the transitions work, how a character gets across a room. All this time you're learning. You loved the central character in the story, and now you can see how the writer presented the character and rendered her worthy of your love and attention. The first reading is creative—you collaborate with the writer in making the story. The second reading is critical.


John Dufresne, from his book, The Lie That Tells A Truth: A Guide to Writing Fiction

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Friday, December 4, 2015

A Study of Prose Fiction by Bliss Perry (1902)

A Study of Prose Fiction by Bliss Perry (1902). The aim of this little book is to discuss the outlines of the art of fiction. In writing it I have followed more or less closely the notes prepared, a few years ago, for a course of lectures on Prose Fiction at Princeton University. These lectures were repeated with several classes and many teachers who have had occasion to examine the syllabus of the lectures and the topical work assigned in connection with them, have asked me to print a book that would be adapted to effective use in the classroom. I have confidence in the general method of fiction study which is here outlined, although the kindly cooperation of my former pupils may have then given the study a certain ardor which the book will fail to impart.

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