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, March 11, 2022

Plotting the Short Story: A Practical Exposition of Germ-Plots, What They are and Where to Find Them; The Structure and Development of the Plot; and the Relation of the Plot to the Story

  

 Plotting the Short Story: A Practical Exposition of Germ-Plots, What They are and Where to Find Them; The Structure and Development of the Plot; and the Relation of the Plot to the Story    

 
by Culpeper Chunn
 
 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
CHAPTER I — Germ-Plots  What They Are and Where to  Find Them 9-22  
 
CHAPTER II — Structure of the Plot 25-39  
 
CHAPTER III — Plot Development  
 
Simple Plots 43-59  
 
Complicated Plots 60-78  
 
CHAPTER IV— Relation of the Plot to the Story 80-96

A comprehensive system of; plot development, and an adequate supply of material to draw from, are almost indispensable to the writer who turns out a large number of stories each year, and to the occasional scribbler who has little knowledge of plot form and structure it is of even greater value. Years of experience as a writer, literary critic and student of the short story have brought out these facts: The writer who is long on writing is generally short on ideas, and an inadequate knowledge of the plot and its development causes more aspiring authors to fail than any other one thing.



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