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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Showing posts with label William B. Cairns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label William B. Cairns. Show all posts

Monday, March 14, 2022

American Literature for Secondary Schools by William B. Cairns

 

American Literature for Secondary Schools by William B. Cairns

American Literature for Secondary Schools 

by 

William B. Cairns

 

 

PREFACE

Teachers of English are fairly well agreed that most of the time spent in literary study should be devoted to literature itself, rather than to history, biography, or second-hand criticism. Yet many, and it seems to me an increasing number, feel that the student needs a brief general survey to aid him in grouping and correlating scattered facts, and to show things in their right proportions. This is especially true in American literature, where, if anywhere, the American student should correlate literary history with other history, and should see that American authors reflect in their writings national life.

This book is intended primarily for use in secondary schools where such a survey is offered in the third or fourth year of the course. It gives relatively few dates or unessential biographical facts, and only a moderate amount of formal criticism ; but it aims to show the continuous growth and development of American literature, to point out its connection with the American history which the student already knows, and to discuss in their proper relationships those authors with whom an American might reasonably be supposed to have an acquaintance.

A single brief term would be sufficient to study the essential parts of the text, and to illustrate them by reference to writings which the pupil has already read. The work will be far more profitable and more interesting, however, if the history can be enforced by a considerable amount of reading in the literature itself. The lists of readings and topics should furnish ample material for such an extension and enrichment of the course.



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