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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Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Astounding Stories, June, 1931 by Various

Astounding Stories, April, 1931

ASTOUNDING

STORIES

20¢

On Sale the First Thursday of Each Month

W. M. CLAYTON, Publisher               HARRY BATES, Editor               DR. DOUGLAS M. DOLD, Consulting Editor

The Clayton Standard on a Magazine Guarantees

That the stories therein are clean, interesting, vivid, by leading writers of the day and purchased under conditions approved by the Authors' League of America;

That such magazines are manufactured in Union shops by American workmen;

That each newsdealer and agent is insured a fair profit;

That an intelligent censorship guards their advertising pages.

The other Clayton magazines are:

ACE-HIGH MAGAZINE, RANCH ROMANCES, COWBOY STORIES, CLUES, FIVE-NOVELS MONTHLY, ALL STAR DETECTIVE STORIES, RANGELAND LOVE STORY MAGAZINE, WESTERN ADVENTURES AND WESTERN LOVE STORIES.

More than Two Million Copies Required to Supply the Monthly Demand for Clayton Magazines.

VOL. VI, No. 3                    CONTENTS                    June, 1931


COVER DESIGN     H. W. WESSO   
Painted in Water-Colors from a Scene in "Manape the Mighty."    
THE MAN FROM 2071     SEWELL PEASLEE WRIGHT    295
Out of the Flow of Time There Appears to Commander John Hanson a Man of Mystery from the Forgotten Past.    
MANAPE THE MIGHTY.     ARTHUR J. BURKS    308
High in Jungle Treetops Swings Young Bentley—His Human Brain Imprisoned in a Mighty Ape. (A Complete Novelette.)    
HOLOCAUST     CHARLES WILLARD DIFFIN    356
The Extraordinary Story of "Paul," Who for Thirty Days Was Dictator of the World.    
THE EARTHMAN'S BURDEN     R. F. STARZL    375
There is Foul Play on Mercury—until Danny Olear of the Interplanetary Flying Police Gets After His Man.    
THE EXILE OF TIME     RAY CUMMINGS    386
Larry and George from 1935, Mary from 1777—All Are Caught up in the Treacherous Tugh's Revolt of the Robots in the Time World of 2930. (Part Three of a Four-Part Novel.)    
THE READERS' CORNER     ALL OF US    416
A Meeting Place for Readers of Astounding Stories.    

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