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, April 12, 2022

LibriVox’s Short Story Collection Vol. 016 (Audio Book)

 

LibriVox’s Short Story Collection Vol. 016 (Audio Book)

LibriVox’s Short Story Collection Vol. 016 (Audio Book)

 

LibriVox’s Short Story Collection 016: a collection of 10 short works of fiction in the public domain read by a variety of LibriVox members.

Genre(s): Short Stories

Language: English

Group: Short Story Collection

 

CONTENTS

  1. 2BR02B by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., read by Mark Nelson - 00:19:15 
  2. The Artist of the Beautiful by Nathaniel Hawthorne, read by Brad Powers -
    00:55:23 
  3. The Clicking of Cuthbert by P. G. Wodehouse, read by John Axe - 00:34:20 
  4. A Cosmopolite in a Café by O. Henry, read by Julian Jamison, Justin Barrett,
    Michael Yard, Shurtagal, & Ezwa - 00:15:37
  5. The Dead Mother by Unknown, read by Peter Yearsley - 00:02:40 
  6. The Half Brothers by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, read by Lucy Burgoyne - 00:38:09 
  7. Head and Shoulders by F. Scott Fitzgerald, read by Daniel Carleton - 00:53:25 
  8. The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, read by Shurtagal - 00:05:52 
  9. The Street That Wasn't There by Clifford D. Simak and Carl Richard Jacobi, read by Peter Yearsley - 00:36:0 
  10. What Men Live By by Leo Tolstoy, read by Cherisa DeBolt - 00:56:47

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