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, April 8, 2022

The Story of a Dream by Ethel Maude Colson

 

The Story of a Dream by Ethel Maude Colson
 

The Story of a Dream 

 

by Ethel Maude Colson

 

Just over the border which lies between
The life which we feel and know
And that which no earth-blind eyes have seen,  
Is a place where all souls must go;
 
Where strange things happen and visions come,
And life like a fancy seems.
As far and faint as a wild bee’s hum, —
’Tis the wonderful Land of Dreams.
 
There joys too pure for this baser earth
Lie waiting for eager hearts,
And loves which died in their very birth
Grow near as the world departs;
There vanished faces look forth and smile,
And many a lost hope gleams,
And buried thoughts live a sweet, short while, —
In the wonderful Land of Dreams.
 
There sorrows shirked must be borne anew,
And many a heart mustache;
But how sweet is the land where all dreams are true,
The world which each soul must make!
Glad Life and Death in its bounds are one.
 
Each fed by its varying streams,
And all return, when their days have gone, —
To the wonderful Land of Dreams
 


 Bibliographic Information

Title:    The Story of a Dream, American Fiction, 1774-1920
Author:    Ethel Maude Colson
Publisher:    C.H. Kerr, 1896
Original From:    Michigan State University
Digitized:    Oct 15, 2013
Length:    304 pages

Buy Ethel Maude Colson Books at Amazon

 

 About the Author 

Edith Matilda Thomas
Edith Matilda Thomas (August 12, 1854 – September 13, 1925) was an American poet who "was one of the first poets to capture successfully the excitement of the modern city." Wikipedia

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