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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Tuesday, March 22, 2022

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

 

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

The Age of Innocence

 

by Edith Wharton


(Audio)



The Age of Innocence is a 1920 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It was her twelfth novel, and was initially serialized in 1920 in four parts, in the magazine Pictorial Review. Later that year, it was released as a book by D. Appleton & Company. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making Wharton the first woman to win the prize. Though the committee had initially agreed to give the award to Sinclair Lewis for Main Street, the judges, in rejecting his book on political grounds, "established Wharton as the American 'First Lady of Letters'". The story is set in the 1870s, in upper-class, "Gilded Age" New York City. Wharton wrote the book in her 50s, after she had established herself as a strong author, with publishers clamoring for her work. Wikipedia

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About the Author 

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton (/ˈhwɔːrtən/; born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper class New York "aristocracy" to realistically portray the lives and morals of the Gilded Age. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Literature, for her novel The Age of Innocence. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1996. Among her other well known works are The House of Mirth and the novella Ethan Frome. Wikipedia 

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Monday, March 21, 2022

Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway

Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway

Hills Like White Elephants 

by Ernest Hemingway

 

"Hills Like White Elephants" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway. It was first published in August 1927, in the literary magazine transition, then later in the 1927 short story collection Men Without Women. Wikipedia



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Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

Giovanni’s Room 

by James Baldwin

 

Giovanni's Room is a 1956 novel by James Baldwin. The book focuses on the events in the life of an American man living in Paris and his feelings and frustrations with his relationships with other men in his life, particularly an Italian bartender named Giovanni whom he meets at a Parisian gay bar. Wikipedia 

 

 About the Author 


James Baldwin
James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer and activist. As a writer, he garnered acclaim across various mediums, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, Go Tell It On The Mountain, was published in 1953; decades later, Time Magazine included the novel on its list of the 100 best English-language novels released from 1923 to 2005.[1] His first essay collection, Notes of a Native Son, was published in 1955. Wikipedia

 

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The Dead by James Joyce

The Dead by James JoyceThe Dead

by James Joyce


The most renowned installment in Joyce’s Dubliners, The Dead is about a young Irishman whose family holds him in the highest regard thanks to his practicality and level-headedness. When he attends a party, however, his principles are challenged as he is pushed to confront his own mortality. Arguably the famed writer’s most accessible work, it nonetheless shows his ability to bury deep themes in seemingly straightforward stories. 

About the Author 

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, short story writer, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century. Joyce's novel Ulysses (1922) is a landmark in which the episodes of Homer's Odyssey are paralleled in a variety of literary styles, most famously stream of consciousness. Other well-known works are the short-story collection Dubliners (1914), and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Finnegans Wake (1939). His other writings include three books of poetry, a play, letters, and occasional journalism. Wikipedia

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The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman


The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Yellow Wallpaper 

by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

 "The Yellow Wallpaper" (original title: "The Yellow Wall-paper. A Story") is a short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in The New England Magazine. It is regarded as an important early work of American feminist literature for its illustration of the attitudes towards mental and physical health of women in the 19th century.


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Sunday, March 20, 2022

The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Version 2)

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940)  This novel tells the story of Anthony Patch, a 1920s socialite and presumptive heir to a tycoon's fortune; the relationship with his wife Gloria, his service in the army, and alcoholism. (Summary from Wikipedia)  Genre(s): General Fiction  Language: English

The Beautiful and Damned

F. Scott Fitzgerald

(1896 - 1940)

The Beautiful and Damned is a 1922 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, his second, that portrays New York café society and the American Eastern elite during the Jazz Age. As in his other novels, Fitzgerald's characters in this novel are complex, materialistic and experience significant disruptions in respect to classism, marriage, and intimacy. (Summary from Wikipedia)

Genre(s): General Fiction
Language: English



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The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940) (Audio Books)

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940)  This novel tells the story of Anthony Patch, a 1920s socialite and presumptive heir to a tycoon's fortune; the relationship with his wife Gloria, his service in the army, and alcoholism. (Summary from Wikipedia)  Genre(s): General Fiction  Language: English

The Beautiful and Damned

F. Scott Fitzgerald

(1896 - 1940)

This novel tells the story of Anthony Patch, a 1920s socialite and presumptive heir to a tycoon's fortune; the relationship with his wife Gloria, his service in the army, and alcoholism. (Summary from Wikipedia)

Genre(s): General Fiction
Language: English





Also see: