story

How do unsuccessful novel writers build houses?

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You get a backhoe and dig a BIG hole. You back up a cement truck and pour three BIG mounds of cement. While cement hardens, you cut down two giant oaks, strip the leaves and throw the trunks with limbs in the big hole on top of the cement. You pour, 100 gallons of glue, a quarter ton of bolts and nails, five porcelain toilets, and three bathtubs. You add 800 light bulbs of various sizes throughout the growing muddle. You mix three hundred gallons of paint in different, preferable incompatible (noncliché) colors, and splash the paint at random over … Read More…

Excessive Pride and Self-Confidence as Motive in Storytelling: Characterization and Plot Example

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An example of excessive pride and self-confidence in story excerpt from “Nemesis”. ___________ After he was fired from his job as audiovisual technician, Fred demanded early retirement, threatening to sue, and received forty-percent of his salary. A pittance of what I’m worth, he thought. Fred’s dismissal humiliated his wife Veronica. “Get a job,” she said, irritated to have him perpetually at home. “I think I’ll start writing a syndicated column for the newspaper,” Fred said, emboldened by his recently acquired disgust–through his intent viewing of TV extremist news–of how seriously deficient America had become. “You’re lazy,” Veronica said. “Lazy people … Read More…

Why is narration perspective important? Isn’t understanding point of view sufficient?

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Great memorable fiction stories that pass to future generations for learning and enjoyment are quite rare, and the authors who create such stories have unique and varied attributes as writers. What separates the great fiction writer/storytellers? One trait seems to drive great writers to create great stories of significance and sustainability. Look to Austen, Homer, Forster, Conrad, Flaubert, Chekhov, De Maupassant, Babel, Melville, Hawthorne, Munro. The great storytellers, with few exceptions, wrote selflessly to engage and entertain a reader and the quality of the story produced significant enlightenment about living and being human. Lesser writers seem intent on fame and … Read More…

Creating Excellence in Fiction: a comment to a student

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Thanks for your comment.  It seems you have all the experience and material to do great work, and you have an authorial attitude for how to approach and present your material that will serve you well as you continue. As you write, it can be helpful to seek a clear purpose for what you write, not just the novel (or short story) but for every chapter, paragraph, sentence, even word choice.  Looking at broad purpose, you’ll come up with a theme and meaning for your writing. Try to make it as clear as possible: dependency destroy lives, incest is immoral, … Read More…

Eight Fundamentals for Writing Fiction Stories

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Eight fundamentals for writing fiction stories. Prose Characterization Plot Narration (POV) Setting Imagery Meaning/purpose Drama There are many ways to think about the writing of great fiction stories. Both readers and writers can benefit by thinking of eight fundamentals and appreciating the interaction of the elements in an individual story. For the reader, appreciation of authorial skills can be enhanced and admired, and for writers, learning to determine strengths and weaknesses in the creation of the different elements can be valuable to balance story for an effective presentation. 1. Prose relates to diction, syntax, and voice. Lyric prose with intense … Read More…

Thoughts on Fiction and Story: Response to a Workshop Question

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Question submitted to workshop. In a short story, is it NECESSARY to have the character on a mission trying to accomplish something? William Trevor and Alice Munro have so often been cited as masters of the short story form, and often I can’t figure out what their characters are “up to.” What are they trying “to do.” It just feels like they show characters living their lives. Let me know what you think? (Submission anonymous) Answer I admit I come with a very narrow aesthetic sense at this. It’s story that makes me warm and fuzzy, stories where something happens … Read More…

Why Should a Serious Fiction Writer Use Second Person Narration?

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More than a few editors see stories with second-person narration as trendy these days.  You enter the church; you kneel at the altar.  You stare into the downcast eyes of the statue of The Virgin, and you wonder if she’s listening. Some readers accept this without question as good, and innovative writing.  Others find it irritating.  Rob Spillman, Editor of Tin House, said: “I have a pet peeve against the second person that I call the second–person accusatory: ‘You are walking down the street.’  I go, ‘No, I am not walking down the street!’”[1]  Spillman reflects the views of many.  … Read More…

Summer Workshops: Tips for Learning Literary Fiction

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  If you’ll be attending a workshop this summer, here are a few ideas to consider. 1. Try to attend workshops where the purpose is to learn to write a literary fictional story (serious-purpose, character-based, and structured story creation). Many creative-writing workshops also teach memoir, creative nonfiction, some historical fiction and genre, in addition to literary fiction.   Classes with multipurpose agendas are a disadvantage to the serious literary fiction writer. 2. Take notes on every idea expressed in class sessions.  Review these in a private review later.  Categorize ideas for practice, further reading or consideration, and discussion.  Based on … Read More…

Exposing the Dark Side of Academic Fiction Workshops

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The end of a number of summer fiction workshops highlights again the influence of academic writing programs on the quality of contemporary literary fiction. Most contemporary literary writers progress through their careers, with variations, like this: college English major; attend MFA program; published work (often workshopped to the point of committee writing) promoted by MFA program; teaching position in creative writing; new work poorly received and published mainly by friends and colleagues in the literary community. This scenario produces unpalatable fiction not of the quality to have any commercial value, and usually consists of autobiographical or memoir material, usually told … Read More…