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

Header

Liquid Story Binder XE by Black Obelisk Software

Disable Copy Paste

Amazon Quick Linker

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

The Short Story in English by Henry Seidel Canby, 1878-1961

 

The Short Story in English by Henry Seidel Canby, 1878-1961

The Short Story in English 

by Henry Seidel Canby

1878-1961

A HISTORY which has for its subject literary type invites criticism and risks dulness. For the excellence of such a work must depend not so much upon the facts included as upon the author's interpretation of them, and it will be interesting only so far as be succeeds in relating an abstraction, his chosen literary type, to the concrete life of the race which found expressions by means of it. Instead of pleasant personalities, with gossip and idiosyncrasies pertaining to them, he must deal with theoretical matters; discourse often of definidons instead of love affairs, of technique when the beauty of subject or style would be more agreeable. In the attempt, he risks aggravating the critic, and boring the reader, than which dangers none in the world of authorship are to be more prayerfully avoided.


The PDF might take a minute to load. Or, click to download PDF.

If your Web browser is not configured to display PDF files. No worries, just click here to download the PDF file.

Posted by at
Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)