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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Saturday, April 9, 2022

Lessons in English by Arthur Lee, Vol. 2

 

Lessons in English by Arthur Lee, Vol. 2

Lessons in English 

by Arthur Lee 

Vol. 2

 

In a few particulars, usage has changed in recent years. Wherever this was the case, statements have been changed in the present book so as to accord with the best modern authority. In the treatment of composition, the series has been thoroughly revised and enlarged in accordance with the spirit and the method of a changed language curriculum. In grammar, the principal changes have been in the direction of simplification and abridgment.

It is in the teaching of composition that the greatest ad vances in elementary English instruction have been made in recent years. Consequently, some portions of the earlier Reed and Kellogg have been eliminated, and a great deal of new material has been added. The increasing use of literature, both prose and poetry, not only as models but as a means of stirring the imagination and freeing tongue and pen, is reflected in this revision. The use of pictures, the relation of expression work to life, the harmonizing Of the book problems with the child's world, are here emphasized. It has not been forgotten, however, that every good text in this field must be in large measure a drill book. Much talking and much writing on subjects which occupy the pupil's mind - to which he gives attention in his other studies or in which he can easily be led to take an interest - have been provided for.

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