• John Gardner
  • Language Arts & Disciplines
  • 2010-08-18

The Art of Fiction

Notes on Craft for Young Writers

Author: John Gardner

Publisher: Vintage

ISBN: 0307756718

Category: Language Arts & Disciplines

Page: 240

View: 9525

This classic guide, from the renowned novelist and professor, has helped transform generations of aspiring writers into masterful writers—and will continue to do so for many years to come. John Gardner was almost as famous as a teacher of creative writing as he was for his own works. In this practical, instructive handbook, based on the courses and seminars that he gave, he explains, simply and cogently, the principles and techniques of good writing. Gardner’s lessons, exemplified with detailed excerpts from classic works of literature, sweep across a complete range of topics—from the nature of aesthetics to the shape of a refined sentence. Written with passion, precision, and a deep respect for the art of writing, Gardner’s book serves by turns as a critic, mentor, and friend. Anyone who has ever thought of taking the step from reader to writer should begin here. From the Trade Paperback edition.
  • John Gardner
  • Language Arts & Disciplines
  • 1991

The Art of Fiction

Notes on Craft for Young Writers

Author: John Gardner

Publisher: Vintage

ISBN: 0679734031

Category: Language Arts & Disciplines

Page: 224

View: 1893

A guide to creative writing examines diverse facets of writing technique, and contains analyses of works by writers from Homer to Mark Twain
  • Ayn Rand
  • Literary Criticism
  • 2000-01-01

The Art of Fiction

A Guide for Writers and Readers

Author: Ayn Rand

Publisher: Penguin

ISBN: 1101137231

Category: Literary Criticism

Page: 192

View: 2415

In 1958, Ayn Rand, already the world-famous author of such bestselling books as Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, gave a private series of extemporaneous lectures in her own living room on the art of fiction. Tore Boeckmann and Leonard Peikoff for the first time now bring readers the edited transcript of these exciting personal statements. The Art of Fiction offers invaluable lessons, in which Rand analyzes the four essential elements of fiction: theme, plot, characterization, and style. She demonstrates her ideas by dissecting her best-known works, as well as those of other famous authors, such as Thomas Wolfe, Sinclair Lewis, and Victor Hugo. An historic accomplishment, this compendium will be a unique and fascinating resource for both writers and readers of fiction.
  • John Gardner
  • Language Arts & Disciplines
  • 2010-09-21

On Becoming a Novelist

Author: John Gardner

Publisher: Open Road Media

ISBN: 1453203508

Category: Language Arts & Disciplines

Page: 150

View: 3031

John Gardner’s classic exploration of the creative processes and career paths of modern fiction writers In this essential guide, John Gardner advises the aspiring fiction author on such topics as the value of creative writing workshops, the developmental stages of literary growth, and the inevitable experience of writer’s block. Drawn from his two decades of experience in creative writing, Gardner balances his compassion for his students with his knowledge of the publishing industry, and truthfully relates his experiences of the hardships that lie ahead for aspiring authors. On Becoming a Novelist is a must-read for those dedicated to the craft and profession of fiction writing. This ebook features a new illustrated biography of John Gardner, including original letters, rare photos, and never-before-seen documents from the Gardner family and the University of Rochester Archives.
  • John Gardner
  • Literary Criticism
  • 2013-04-02

On Moral Fiction

Author: John Gardner

Publisher: Open Road Media

ISBN: 1480409219

Category: Literary Criticism

Page: 234

View: 9259

John Gardner’s acclaimed search for the lost morality in art and literature Novelist John Gardner’s thesis in On Moral Fiction is simple: “True art is by its nature moral.” It is also an audacious statement, as Gardner asserts an inherent value in life and in art. Since the book’s first publication, the passion behind Gardner’s assertion has both provoked and inspired readers. In examining the work of his peers, Gardner analyzes what has gone wrong, in his view, in modern art and literature, and how shortcomings in artistic criticism have contributed to the problem. He develops his argument by showing how artists and critics can reintroduce morality and substance to their work to improve society and cultivate our morality. On Moral Fiction is an essential read in which Gardner presents his thoughtfully developed criteria for the elements he believes are essential to art and its creation. This ebook features an illustrated biography of John Gardner, including original letters, rare photos, and never-before-seen documents from the Gardner family and the University of Rochester Archives.
  • John Casey
  • Reference
  • 2014-08-18

Beyond the First Draft: The Art of Fiction

Author: John Casey

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

ISBN: 0393244008

Category: Reference

Page: 256

View: 9844

For students and writers alike, a brilliant guide to the craft of writing by the National Book Award–winning author of Spartina. National Book Award winner John Casey is a masterful novelist who is also an inspiring and beloved teacher. In Beyond the First Draft he offers essential and original insights into the art of writing—and rewriting—fiction. Through anecdotes about other writers’ methods and habits (as well as his own) and close readings of literature from Aristotle to Zola, the essays in this collection offer “suggestions about things to do, things to think about when your writing has got you lost in the woods.” In “Dogma and Anti-dogma” Casey sets out the tried-and-true advice and then comments on when to apply it and when to ignore it. In “What's Funny” he considers the range of comedy from pratfalls to elegant wit. In “In Other Words” he discusses translations and the surprising effects that translating can have on one’s native language. In “Mentors” he pays tribute to those who have guided him and other writers. Throughout the fourteen essays there are notes on voice, point of view, structure, and other crucial elements. This book is an invaluable resource for aspiring writers and a revitalizing companion for seasoned ones.
  • Percy Lubbock
  • Fiction
  • 1954

The Craft of Fiction

Author: Percy Lubbock

Publisher: Lulu.com

ISBN: 1365591972

Category: Fiction

Page: 277

View: 601

  • Andrew Cowan
  • Literary Criticism
  • 2013-11-19

The Art of Writing Fiction

Author: Andrew Cowan

Publisher: Routledge

ISBN: 1317861523

Category: Literary Criticism

Page: 240

View: 7938

The Art of Writing Fiction guides the reader through the processes of creative writing from journal-keeping to editing, offering techniques for stimulating creativity and making language vivid. Readers will master key aspects of fiction such as structure, character, voice and setting. Andrew Cowan provides an insightful introduction that brings his own well-crafted prose style to bear on the processes and pleasures of writing fiction, offering practical and personal advice culled from his own experience and that of other published writers. He lays open to the reader his own notes, his writing, and the experiences from his own life that he has drawn on in his fiction allowing the reader to develop their own writing project alongside the author as they go through the book.
  • John Gardner and Lennis Dunlap
  • 1962

The Forms of Fiction

Author: John Gardner and Lennis Dunlap

Publisher: N.A

ISBN: N.A

Category:

Page: N.A

View: 8262

  • Willa Cather
  • Literary Criticism
  • 1988-01-01

Willa Cather on Writing

Critical Studies on Writing as an Art

Author: Willa Cather

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

ISBN: 9780803263321

Category: Literary Criticism

Page: 126

View: 622

"Whatever is felt upon the page without being specifically named there—that, one might say, is created." This famous observation appears in Willa Cather on Writing, a collection of essays and letters first published in 1949. In the course of it Cather writes, with grace and piercing clarity, about her own fiction and that of Sarah Orne Jewett, Stephen Crane, and Katherine Mansfield, among others. She concludes, "Art is a concrete and personal and rather childish thing after all—no matter what people do to graft it into science and make it sociological and psychological; it is no good at all unless it is let alone to be itself—a game of make-believe, of re-production, very exciting and delightful to people who have an ear for it or an eye for it."
  • Lori Sjoberg
  • Fiction
  • 2017-06-23

Burning Down the House

Author: Lori Sjoberg

Publisher: N.A

ISBN: 1537878786

Category: Fiction

Page: 54

View: 3073

Firefighter Bruce Cobretti has never gotten over Megan Woodward, the woman he loved and lost. Now seven years later, a not-so-routine house fire brings them together and reignites their passion. Can he convince her that they’re meant to be together, or will his plans go up in flames? ***This short story was originally published in the Real Men Do It Better box set.***
  • James Wood
  • Language Arts & Disciplines
  • 2008-07-22

How Fiction Works

Author: James Wood

Publisher: Macmillan

ISBN: 9780374173401

Category: Language Arts & Disciplines

Page: 265

View: 550

A book-length essay by the forefront literary critic takes readers on a philosophical tour of the art of the novel, in a wide-ranging piece that explores such topics as the definition of style, the connection between realism and real life, and the qualities that make a story. By the author of The Irresponsible Self.
  • Stephen King
  • Biography & Autobiography
  • 2002-06-25

On Writing

Author: Stephen King

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

ISBN: 0743455967

Category: Biography & Autobiography

Page: 297

View: 5094

The author shares his insights into the craft of writing and offers a humorous perspective on his own experience as a writer.
  • Oakley M. Hall
  • Fiction
  • 1994

The Art and Craft of Novel Writing

Author: Oakley M. Hall

Publisher: Story Press Books

ISBN: 9781884910029

Category: Fiction

Page: 219

View: 2693

Like a muse for the writer, Oakley Hall thoughtfully leads us past the sinkholes of cliches, flat prose, and self-conscious writing and guides us toward the magic of vivid and original storytelling. ...An essential resource for any writer -- beginning, published, or just plain stuck. -- Amy TanOakley Hall cites the works and methods of such great novelists as John Steinbeck, Joyce Carol Oates, Leo Tolstoy, Agatha Christie and Milan Kundera to show readers what works in the novel, and why. This book features advice on taking a novel through each of its stages, from the beginning of an idea to The End, and guides writers through the process of writing a novel.
  • Charles Johnson
  • Biography & Autobiography
  • 2016-12-06

The Way of the Writer

Reflections on the Art and Craft of Storytelling

Author: Charles Johnson

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

ISBN: 1501147226

Category: Biography & Autobiography

Page: 256

View: 2316

From Charles Johnson—a National Book Award winner, Professor Emeritus at University of Washington, and one of America’s preeminent scholars on literature and race—comes an instructive, inspiring guide to the craft and art of writing. An award-winning novelist, philosopher, essayist, screenwriter, professor, and cartoonist, Charles Johnson has devoted his life to creative pursuit. His 1990 National Book Award-winning novel Middle Passage is a modern classic, revered as much for its daring plot as its philosophical underpinnings. For thirty-three years, Johnson taught and mentored students in the art and craft of creative writing. The Way of the Writer is his record of those years, and the coda to a kaleidoscopic, boundary-shattering career. Organized into six accessible, easy-to-navigate sections, The Way of the Writer is both a literary reflection on the creative impulse and a utilitarian guide to the writing process. Johnson shares his lessons and exercises from the classroom, starting with word choice, sentence structure, and narrative voice, and delving into the mechanics of scene, dialogue, plot and storytelling before exploring the larger questions at stake for the serious writer. What separates literature from industrial fiction? What lies at the heart of the creative impulse? How does one navigate the literary world? And how are philosophy and fiction concomitant? Luminous, inspiring, and imminently accessible, The Way of the Writer is a revelatory glimpse into the mind of the writer and an essential guide for anyone with a story to tell.
  • Sir Walter Besant
  • Fiction
  • 1885

The Art of Fiction

Author: Sir Walter Besant

Publisher: N.A

ISBN: N.A

Category: Fiction

Page: 85

View: 3118

  • Francine Prose
  • Biography & Autobiography
  • 2012-04-01

Reading Like a Writer

A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them

Author: Francine Prose

Publisher: Union Books

ISBN: 1908526149

Category: Biography & Autobiography

Page: 304

View: 4476

DIV In her entertaining and edifying New York Times bestseller, acclaimed author Francine Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and tricks of the masters to discover why their work has endured. Written with passion, humour and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire readers to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart – to take pleasure in the long and magnificent sentences of Philip Roth and the breathtaking paragraphs of Isaac Babel; to look to John le Carré for a lesson in how to advance plot through dialogue and to Flannery O’Connor for the cunning use of the telling detail; to be inspired by Emily Brontë’s structural nuance and Charles Dickens’s deceptively simple narrative techniques. Most importantly, Prose cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which all literature is crafted, and reminds us that good writing comes out of good reading. /div
  • E. M. Forster
  • Literary Criticism
  • 2010-07-01

Aspects of the Novel

Author: E. M. Forster

Publisher: Rosetta Books

ISBN: 0795311567

Category: Literary Criticism

Page: 192

View: 7504

The renowned British novelist’s “casual and wittily acute guidance” on reading—and writing—great fiction (Harper’s). Renowned for such classics as A Room with a View, Howards End, and A Passage to India, E. M. Forster was one of Britain’s—and the world’s—most distinguished fiction writers, a frequent nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature. In this collection of lectures delivered at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1927, he takes a wide-ranging look at English-language novels—with specific examples from such masters as Dickens and Austen—discussing the elements they all have in common. Using a witty, informal tone and drawing as well on his extensive readings in French and Russian literature, Forster discusses his ideas in reference to such figures as Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Proust; explains the difference between “flat” and “round” characters and between plot and story; and ultimately provides an “admirable and delightful” education for anyone who appreciates the art of a good book (The New York Times).
  • Douglas Bauer
  • Language Arts & Disciplines
  • 2006

The Stuff of Fiction

Advice on Craft

Author: Douglas Bauer

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

ISBN: 9780472031535

Category: Language Arts & Disciplines

Page: 189

View: 3246

In this book, prizewinning novelist and popular creative writing instructor Douglas Bauer (The Book of Famous Iowans) shares the secrets of his trade. Talent, as Bauer acknowledges, is the most crucial element for a writer and cannot be taught. But without a regular habit of work, and a perseverance of effort, no amount of talent can come forward and be recognized. His lively and candid essays on subjects critical to the fiction writer’s success demystify the essential elements of fiction writing, how they work, and work together. Bauer’s focus is on the building blocks of successful fiction: dialogue (the intimate relationship between characters talking and the eavesdropping reader), characters (the virtues of creating fictional characters that are both splendidly flawed and sympathetic), and dramatic events (ways to create moments that produce an emotional and psychological impact). There are also chapters on crafting effective openings and memorable closings of stories and on the vital presence of sentiment in fiction versus the ruinous effect of sentimentality. By assuming the point of view of someone at the task, engaged with the work, inside the effort to bring an invented world to life, The Stuff of Fiction speaks to writers of all ages in a pleasurable yet practical voice. Douglas Bauer is the author of three novels, Dexterity, The Very Air, and The Book of Famous Iowans, and one book of nonfiction, Prairie City, Iowa. He is also a core faculty member with the MFA Program at Bennington College and has received a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Massachusetts Artists Foundation grant, and two Harvard Danforth Excellence in Teaching Citations.
  • The Paris Review
  • Fiction
  • 2012-10-02

Object Lessons

The Paris Review Presents the Art of the Short Story

Author: The Paris Review

Publisher: Picador

ISBN: 1250016185

Category: Fiction

Page: 368

View: 8632

A New York Magazine Best Book of the Year A Huffington Post Best Book of the Year Twenty contemporary authors introduce twenty sterling examples of the short story from the pages of The Paris Review. What does it take to write a great short story? In Object Lessons, twenty contemporary masters of the genre answer that question, sharing favorite stories from the pages of The Paris Review. Over the course of the last half century, the Review has launched hundreds of careers while publishing some of the most inventive and best-loved stories of our time. This anthology---the first of its kind---is more than a treasury: it is an indispensable resource for writers, students, and anyone else who wants to understand fiction from a writer's point of view. "Some chose classics. Some chose stories that were new even to us. Our hope is that this collection will be useful to young writers, and to others interested in literary technique. Most of all, it is intended for readers who are not (or are no longer) in the habit of reading short stories. We hope these object lessons will remind them how varied the form can be, how vital it remains, and how much pleasure it can give."—from the Editors' Note WITH SELECTIONS BY Daniel Alarcón · Donald Barthelme · Ann Beattie · David Bezmozgis · Jorge Luis Borges · Jane Bowles · Ethan Canin · Raymond Carver · Evan S. Connell · Bernard Cooper · Guy Davenport · Lydia Davis · Dave Eggers · Jeffrey Eugenides · Mary Gaitskill · Thomas Glynn · Aleksandar Hemon · Amy Hempel · Mary-Beth Hughes · Denis Johnson · Jonathan Lethem · Sam Lipsyte · Ben Marcus · David Means · Leonard Michaels · Steven Millhauser · Lorrie Moore · Craig Nova · Daniel Orozco · Mary Robison · Norman Rush · James Salter · Mona Simpson · Ali Smith · Wells Tower · Dallas Wiebe · Joy Williams