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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Thursday, November 17, 2022

Via Berlin: A Story of International Intrigue by Crittenden Marriott

Via Berlin by Crittenden Marriott


Via Berlin: A Story of International Intrigue

by Crittenden Marriott

 

PREFACE

The veil of diplomacy screens many secrets—most of them for many years. But the veil is not impenetrable; from time to time a corner lifts, disclosing a fact long-suspected but never quite comprehended, a fact that fits into a history thitherto incomplete.

So of this tale! Its substance is not altogether new. For years rumors of it have floated in and out of diplomatic antechambers in half truths and partial explanations that lacked the master key that would give them form and coherence. Now, now when the event itself is well-nigh forgotten, comes the great war to supply the key to the puzzle—the missing fragment, round which all the other fragments range themselves in one consistent whole.

Fancy? Guesswork? Gossip? Perhaps. The veil has dropped again and much may still be hidden behind it. But those who read the tale in the light of later events—of events of yesterday and events still in progress—are likely to put more faith in it than in many of the solemn lies of history.


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