How to Write Fiction (and Think about It)

ISBN-13: 9781403993151 / Angielski / Miękka / 2007 / 280 str.

Robert Graham; Gareth Creer; James Friel

Opis

This wide-ranging handbook is aimed at students who want to develop their fiction writing skills. Reading and reflective practice are foregrounded, and students are given constant recommendations of what they might read. Imaginative and accessible, this companionable handbook is clearly and innovatively structured around the processes and techniques of developing writing. It will allow students to acquire a portfolio of key skills and is ideal for anyone writing short stories or longer fiction.

Spis treści

Notes on Contributors.- Introduction.- Writing Bursts.- PART 1: HOW A WRITER WORKS.- How A Writer Works.- Making Notes.- 500-word Story Project: Person, Place, Problem.- Keeping Journals.- How To Read As A Writer + Reflection Project: The Writer Reading.- Reflection Project 2: Reading As A Writer.- PART 2: HOW TO WRITE SHORT STORIES.- A Brief Tour Around The Short Story.- The Distance Between: Author, Narrator, Reader and Point of View.- Characters; H.Newall.- Living Elsewhere: Plot.- Scenes.- Dialogue.- Setting.- Epiphany.- 1000-word Story Project: Family Plot.- PART 3: HOW TO REDRAFT.- Redrafting 1: Editing.- Page Design.- Peer Appraisal.- Writer's Workshops.- Redrafting 2: Revising.- PART 4: HOW TO MANAGE FICTIONAL TIME.- Some Notes On Handling Time In Fiction; J.Friel.- Foreshadowing.- Transitions.- Crossing Timelines and Breaking Rules; H.Leach.- PART 5: HOW TO WRITE WITH STYLE.- Meaning Sense and Clarity.- Description; U.Hurley.- Sentences.- 2000-word Story Project: Dental Surgery.- PART 6: DEVELOPING YOUR FICTION.- Demons and Angels: Using a Persona; J.Newman.- Looking For The Drama; U.Hurley.- 3000-word Story Project: Literary Revision.- The Longer Story.- Story Project: The Longer Story.- The Short Story Cycle.- Story Project: The Short Story Cycle.- Structure What Is It Good For?; G.Creer.- Reflection Project 3: Where You Are Up To Now.- AFTERWORD.- How To Go the Distance.- Bibliography.- Index.

O autorze

ROBERT GRAHAM is Programme Leader of the BA Creative Writing degree at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. His previous publications include The Road to Somewhere: A Creative Writing Companion (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).

Blurb

If you are a writer of fiction, this practical handbook will teach you how to acquire your own writer's tool-box. Here you will learn all about developing your craft. The wide-ranging exploration of fiction-writing skills contains many unique features, such as the focus on reflective learning and tuition on advanced skills including foreshadowing, transitions and producing short story cycles. Throughout, the approach is centred on three kinds of activity:

- examining the theory of particular fiction writing skills
- analysing the practice of these skills in examples of published work
- practising the use of skills in fiction-writing exercises.

What makes this guide so distinctive, though, is the way it consistently asks you to reflect on your work, and stresses the importance of being able to articulate the processes of writing.

Packed with wisdom about the art of fiction and filled with writing exercises, How To Write Fiction (And Think About It) examines the work of today's finest authors to teach you everything you need to know about writing short stories or longer fiction. Whether you are a student, a would-be professional author, or a general reader who simply likes to write for pleasure, this guide will equip you with a portfolio of key fiction-writing skills.