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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Wednesday, March 30, 2022

The North Shore Mystery by Henry Fletcher

The North Shore Mystery by Henry Fletcher

The North Shore Mystery 

 

by Henry Fletcher

 

 Excrept from Chapter I 

THE CRIME

 

On August 15, 188–, the public of Sydney were aroused to unusual excitement by the following announcement in the Evening Times of that date—

“A NORTH SHORE MYSTERY.
CRIME OR SUICIDE?

SUDDEN AND UNEXPLAINED DEATH OF A
WELL-KNOWN SPORTSMAN.
STABBED TO DEATH IN HIS BED.

HOW WAS IT DONE?"

The usual quiet of North Shore was this morning rudely dispelled by the alarming rumour that a crime of an unusual kind had been committed in the house of Mrs. Delfosse, Lavender Bay.

 

About the Author 

 

Henry Fletcher was born in London and came to Australia in 1872, living in Tasmania and travelling through the Australian colonies and New Zealand before going to live in Europe. He returned to Australia many years later and began writing fiction, with short stories appearing in the Bulletin from the mid-1890s. His first novel, The North Shore Mystery (1899), was a detective story praised in reviews of the time for being 'distinctively Australian.' His subsequent 'Wayback' series of novels - including The Waybacks: In Town and at Home (1902) and The Waybacks Again, or, Love at Dingo Flat (1910) - were humorous portrayals of a bush family that were successfully adapted for the theatre in 1916.


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