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

The Universal Plot Catalog : An Examination of the Elements of Plot Material and Construction, Combined with a Complete Index and a Progressive Category in Which the Source, Life, and End of All Dramatic Conflict and Plot Master Are Classified

The Universal Plot Catalog : An Examination of the Elements of Plot Material and Construction, Combined with a Complete Index and a Progressive Category in Which the Source, Life, and End of All Dramatic Conflict and Plot Master Are Classified

by Henry Albert Phillips

1880-1951

 

For all Writers of Fiction and Drama, Prose and Verse; also Editors, Oractors, Teachers, Librarians, Newspaper Men, Statisticians and Preachers.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

INTRODUCTION vii

FOREWORD 3ci

I.— THE NATURE OF PLOT MATERIAL ... 17

Dramatic Expression; Plot Particles; the Ordinary and tlie Extraordinary; ABC of Plotting; Recognition; Emotional Core; Dramatic Fragments.

II.— DISCRIMINATION BETWEEN PLOT MATERIAL AND COMPLETE PLOT 22

A Confusion of Terms; Analogies in other Fields of Art; Law of Fiction Plot; the Sum of All the Parts.

III.— THE RELATION OF PLOT TO LITERARY

CONSTRUCTION 28

Not Composition but Construction; Keystone of Intelligent Effort; Soul of Organic Matter; Relation to Strategy; Non-Fiction Forms.

IV.— COMMON SOURCES OF PLOT MATERIAL 35

Plot Matter also Fiction Material; the Five Senses and Life; the Dramatic Ear and Eye; the Fictitious Mood and its Stimulants; What Constitutes Confidences; Stealing Plots or Stimulating Ideas; Books, Newspapers and Poetry; Phrases, Excerpts, Pictures and Notes.

V.— WHAT THE UNIVERSAL PLOT CATALOG IS 43

Not a List of Actual Plots; Potential Rather than Existent; Chaos versus System; A Thesaurus, Ready Reference, Perpetual Stimulant, Spontaneous Collector and Efficient File; Eminently Useful for Editors, Orators, Teachers, Librarians, Newspaper Men, Statisticians, Preachers — as well as Writers of all Kinds.

VI.— THE SCOPE OF THE CATALOG 51

Man; his Vicissitudes and his Desires, his Relationships and his Struggles; the Plot of the Plot Catalog; a Complete Cycle; the Line of Progression; that which is Not Man; Ending with the Beginning.

VIL— HOW TO USE THE PLOT CATALOG. ... 50

A Practical Device, not a Theoretical Contrivance; the Automatic Plot Collector and File; How One may be Made; Filed According to the Predominant Phase; How to Avoid Confusion; All Divisions are Potential ; Practical Illustrations.

VIII.— THE UNIVERSAL PLOT CATALOG (I.— The Grand Divisions) 71

A Progressive Category of Man — his Vicissitudes, his Desires, his Relationships and his Struggles — in which All Dramatic Conflict and Plot Material in the Universe find their Source, Life and End.

IX.— THE UNIVERSAL PLOT CATALOG (II.— Inclining ALL Minor Divisions) 75

Together with Starred References for Filing Plot Material.

X.— A FICTION EXAMPLE ILLUSTRATING THE VALUE OF THE CATALOG 107

" A Weaver of Dreams; " its Classification and Analysis.

XI— A COMPLETE INDEX OF PLOT SUBJECTS 129

Alphabetized with Cross References.



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