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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Saturday, March 26, 2022

The World's Best Poetry, Volume 1: Home and Friendship (Part 2) (Audio Book)

 

The World's Best Poetry, Volume 1: Home and Friendship (Part 2) (Audio Book)

The World's Best Poetry, Volume 1: Home and Friendship (Part 2) (Audio Book)

by Various

 

Part 1 - Part 2 - eBook

 

The first of ten volumes of poetry edited by Canadian poet laureate Bliss Carman (1861-1929). This collection, the second of two parts, includes a trove of poetry focusing on youth and young love; the home and domestic life; and the highs and lows of friendship. - Summary by Tomas Peter  

Genre(s): Anthologies
Language: English

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The World's Best Poetry, Volume 1: Home and Friendship (Part 1) (Audio Book)

 

The World's Best Poetry, Volume 1: Home and Friendship (Part 1) (Audio Book)

The World's Best Poetry, Volume 1: Home and Friendship (Part 1) (Audio Book)

by Various

 

Part 1 - Part 2 - eBook


The first of ten volumes of poetry edited by Canadian poet laureate Bliss Carman (1861-1929). This collection, the first of two parts, includes a trove of poetry about home and family life, focusing especially on verses about children, verses for children, and fun for little folk. It also includes a general introduction to the series by Carman himself, as well as an introductory essay to the volume by University of Chicago English professor William Darnall MacClintock (1858-1936). (Summary by Tomas Peter)

Genre(s): Anthologies
Language: English 
 
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Say Yes by Tobias Wolff

 

Say Yes by Tobias Wolff
 

Say Yes 

by Tobias Wolff

 

Say Yes” is a short story written by Tobias Wolff in 1985. This story is about a husband and wife discussing the issues of interracial marriage. While she feels that race should not be a factor when marrying someone, he disagrees, saying, “how can you understand someone who comes from a completely different background?” The couple's discussion confronts the theories on identity, race, and love. Wikipedia

About the Author 

Tobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff is a writer of fiction and nonfiction.

He is best known for his short stories and his memoirs, although he has written two novels.

Wolff is the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, where he has taught classes in English and creative writing since 1997. He also served as the director of the Creative Writing Program at Stanford from 2000 to 2002.

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning Selected Poems

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Selected Poems

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Selected Poems

 Over sixty poems and extracts by one of the most intelligent and renowned poets of her time; including extensive excerpts from her verse novel Aurora Leigh.

One of the leading poets of the nineteenth century, Elizabeth Barrett Browning had a profound influence on her contemporaries and on writers that followed her. This edition provides a rich and varied selection of Barrett Browning’s poetry, including relatively neglected material from her early career and works never before included in editions of her poetry. The edition is comprehensively annotated and includes a critical introduction; detailed headnotes for each poem also provide the reader with a deep understanding of the historical, biographical, and literary contexts in which the poems were written. 

 With an Introduction and Notes, Elizabeth Barrett Browning was such an acclaimed poet in her own lifetime that she was suggested as a candidate for the Poet Laureateship when Wordsworth died in 1850. Yet today we have only a limited knowledge of her considerable life's work as a poet, in part because of a lack of representative but accessible editions of her work. Readers will find here not only her well-known sonnet sequence of love poems, Sonnets From the Portuguese, but also lesser known sonnets, some in praise of the cross-dressing bohemian writer George Sand, others to contemporary poets and artists. Her religious and spiritual poetry echoes that of the Metaphysical poets. A different voice emerges in her social and political protest poems, such as 'The Cry of the Children' and 'The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point'. Her experimental ballads allowed her to develop a distinctive way of writing about women within an apparently conventional form. In the outstanding work of her maturity, Aurora Leigh, the woman's voice takes centre stage. This 'novel-poem' is full of verve and interest, with a female poet-hero who casts a caustic eye on life and on her fellow men - and women. We all think we know the story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning - the mysterious illness which enclosed her in her room, her over-loving but imperious father, and her romantic, secret marriage to the poet Robert Browning and their life together in Italy. But this comprehensive selection of her poetry tells the real story of her sustained creative life as a poet, which began with her childhood poetic ambitions and ended only with her death. All the major aspects of her poetry are represented in this accessible edition which is well-annotated and contextualised, with a wide-ranging introduction which covers Barrett Browning's poetic and intellectual life as well as her personal one. Recent critical re-readings, including major feminist reassessments, of her poetry are covered in the introduction, with helpful suggestions for further reading.

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The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope

The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope

 The Way We Live Now 

by Anthony Trollope

 

The Way We Live Now is a satirical novel by Anthony Trollope, published in London in 1875 after first appearing in serialised form. It is one of the last significant Victorian novels to have been published in monthly parts.

The novel is Trollope's longest, comprising 100 chapters, and is particularly rich in sub-plot. It was inspired by the financial scandals of the early 1870s; Trollope had just returned to England from abroad, and was appalled by the greed and dishonesty those scandals exposed. This novel was his rebuke. It dramatised how such greed and dishonesty pervaded the commercial, political, moral, and intellectual life of that era. Wikipedia

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Friday, March 25, 2022

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, Version 3, (PDF)

 

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

The Turn of the Screw 

 

by Henry James

 

 Online Full Book

 

The Turn of the Screw originally published in 1898, is a gothic ghost story novella written by Henry James. Due to its original content, the novella became a favourite text of academics who subscribe to New Criticism. The novella has had differing interpretations, often mutually exclusive. Many critics have tried to determine the exact nature of the evil hinted at by the story. However, others have argued that the true brilliance of the novella comes with its ability to create an intimate confusion and suspense for the reader.
 

About the Author

 Henry James (15 April 1843 – 28 February 1916) was an American-born British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.

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The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, Version 2, (PDF)

 

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

The Turn of the Screw 

 

by Henry James

 

 Online Full Book

 

The Turn of the Screw is an 1898 horror novella by Henry James which first appeared in serial format in Collier's Weekly (January 27 – April 16, 1898). In October 1898, it was collected in The Two Magics, published by Macmillan in New York City and Heinemann in London. The novella follows a governess who, caring for two children at a remote estate, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted. The Turn of the Screw is considered a work of both Gothic and horror fiction. Wikipedia
 

 Henry James (15 April 1843 – 28 February 1916) was an American-born British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.

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