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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Sunday, January 1, 2023

Astounding Stories of Super-Science January 1931 by Various (PDF)

 

Astounding Stories of Super-Science January 1931 by Various


The Clayton Standard on a Magazine Guarantees:

  • That the stories therein are clean, interesting, vivid, by leading writers of the day and purchased under conditions approved by the Authors’ League of America;
  • That such magazines are manufactured in Union shops by American workmen;
  • That each newsdealer and agent is insured a fair profit;
  • That an intelligent censorship guards their advertising pages.

 

The other Clayton magazines are:

ACE-HIGH MAGAZINE, RANCH ROMANCES, COWBOY STORIES, CLUES, FIVE-NOVELS MONTHLY, ALL STAR DETECTIVE STORIES, RANGELAND LOVE STORY MAGAZINE, WESTERN ADVENTURES, and WESTERN LOVE STORIES.

More Than Two Million Copies Required to Supply the Monthly Demand for Clayton Magazines.

VOL. V, No. 1    CONTENTS    JANUARY, 1931

 

COVER DESIGN    H. W. WESSO   

Painted in Water-Colors from a Scene in “The Gate to Xoran.”

THE DARK SIDE OF ANTRI    SEWELL PEASLEE WRIGHT    9

Commander John Hanson Relates an Interplanetary Adventure Illustrating the Splendid Service Spirit of the Men of the Special Patrol.

THE SUNKEN EMPIRE    H. THOMPSON RICH    24

Concerning the Strange Adventures of Professor Stevens with the Antillians on the Floor of the Mysterious Sargasso Sea.

THE GATE TO XORAN    HAL K. WELLS    46

A Strange Man of Metal Comes to Earth on a Dreadful Mission.

THE EYE OF ALLAH    C. D. WILLARD    58

On the Fatal Seventh of September a Certain Secret Service Man Sat in the President’s Chair and—Looked Back into the Eye of Allah.

THE FIFTH-DIMENSION CATAPULT    MURRAY LEINSTER    72

The Story of Tommy Reames’ Extraordinary Rescue of Professor Denham and his Daughter—Marooned in the Fifth Dimension. (A Complete Novelette.)

THE PIRATE PLANET    CHARLES W. DIFFIN    109

Two Fighting Yankees—War-Torn Earth’s Sole Representatives on Venus—Set Out to Spike the Greatest Gun of All Time. (Part Three of a Four-Part Novel.)

THE READERS’ CORNER    ALL OF US    132

A Meeting Place for Readers of Astounding Stories.

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