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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Monday, October 16, 2023

Ten Days in a Mad-House; or, Nellie Bly's Experience on Blackwell's Island by Nellie Bly

 

Ten Days in a Mad-House; or, Nellie Bly's Experience on Blackwell's Island by Nellie Bly

TEN DAYS IN A MAD-HOUSE;
 
OR,
 
Nellie Bly’s Experience on Blackwell’s Island.
 

FEIGNING INSANITY IN ORDER TO REVEAL ASYLUM HORRORS.
 

THE TRYING ORDEAL OF THE NEW YORK WORLD’S GIRL CORRESPONDENT.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1887, by Norman L. Munro, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

NEW YORK:
NORMAN L. MUNRO, PUBLISHER,
24 AND 26 VANDEWATER ST.
 
 

The book was based on articles written while Bly was on an undercover assignment for the New York World, feigning insanity at a women's boarding house, so as to be involuntarily committed to an insane asylum. She then investigated the reports of brutality and neglect at the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island.

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