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

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Aspects of Fiction and Other Ventures in Criticism, by Brander Matthews, 1852-1929

Aspects of Fiction and Other Ventures in Criticism, by Brander Matthews, 1852-1929

Aspects of Fiction and Other Ventures in Criticism

 

by  Brander Matthews, 1852-1929 

 

CONTENTS

  1. American literature
  2. Two studies of the South
  3. The penalty of humor
  4. On pleasing the taste of the public
  5. On certain parallelisms between the ancient drama and the modern
  6. The importance of the folk-theatre
  7. Two French dramatic critics: 
    1. M. Francisque Sarcey
    2. M. Jules Lemaître
  8. Two Scotsmen of letters: 
    1. Mr. Andrew Lang
    2.  Robert Louis Stevenson
  9. Aspects of fiction:
    1. The gift of story-telling
    2. Cervantes
    3. Zola
    4. Kipling & co.
    5. The prose tales of M. François Coppée
    6. The short stories of M. Ludovic Halévy
    7. Mr. Charles Dudley Warner as a writer of fiction

      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)