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, October 25, 2016

How to Write for a Living by Trentwell Mason White (1937)



THIS book has been built for two types of readers: the adult with an eagerness and the leisure to learn about the fundamentals of modem fiction construction in the business of writing for profit; and the college student whose advanced composition courses demand of him some knowledge of literary craftsmanship in one or another of the various forms of imaginative writing.

Excerpt from How to Write for a Living Stories and the yearly Best American Short Stories to learn What fiction trends the editors and critics had served over half a decade. The summing up of all the information comes to this: there appears to be a continued growth in the honesty and integrity of American writers. Realism holds firmly, though the open-plumbing school of literature has lost ground rapidly. Romanticism, still battling with realism, has perhaps gained, with the costume piece being increasingly popular.

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How to Write for a Living by Trentwell Mason White.

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