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Summary:
A bestseller through six editions, Writing Fiction by novelists Janet Burroway and Elizabeth Stuckey-French explores the elements of fiction, providing practical writing techniques and concrete examples. Written in a tone that is personal and non-prescriptive, the text encourages writers to develop proficiency through each step of the writing process, offering an abundance of exercises designed to spur writing and creativity. The text also integrates diverse contemporary short stories in every chapter in the belief that the reading of inspiring fiction goes hand-in-hand with the writing of fresh and exciting stories. Thorough and practical discussions of all the major fictional elements offer students a comprehensive guide to the craft of writing stories. Topics include freewriting, plot, style, characterization, dialogue, time, place, imagery, and point of view. For novice writers looking to develop proficiency.
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
Are you serious? How many typos are in this thing?
Customer Rating:
Good grief, these stories are horrible. I can hardly believe how awful her selections are. Even more unbelievable is the gross number of typos in this book. Did they not put copy editors on this project at Pearson Longman? I don't understand how it's acceptable to put out a product with that low of quality consideration.
As for the book as an academic text, I found it enormously unhelpful. To be fair, however, I should note that I have a philosophy on creative writing which differs from Burroway's. I do not subscribe to the idea that you should write just because you 'wanna'. If it's not welling up inside you, if you're not itching to put it onto paper, you have no story to tell and no amount of over-simplified mechanics is going to matter.
Her view on colloquial language and spellings is also simplistic and unenlightened. Sorry Twain, Sillitoe; Burroway says you guys did it wrong.
If you have to get this book for a class, do what I did: refuse to buy it and use a friend's copy as little as possible.
writing fiction
Customer Rating:
Everything was fine except the book was slightly thinner and wider than the one in my school bookstore so I was a bit thrown off. I compared inside and they seem identical. Also, the print is no smaller. The most interesting text book I've read though.
Excellent Resource
Customer Rating:
I took a writing class several years ago and this was required reading. I found it to be a great resource. It is very simply organized and well written. The author gives some excellent examples that become quite memorable. After college, I had misplaced my book. I loved it so much that I ordered another copy from Amazon. If you want just the basics on creative writing, this would be a great book to start.
stop being a snob
Customer Rating:
These authors seem to think that, just because they've never read strongly written genre fiction, it should never be written or read; she implicitly indicates that the two are, in fact, mutually exclusive. The appendix of this book says it all, "It may be fine to offer readers an escape through fiction, but it isn't a way to educate yourself as a writer, and it's also fair to say that escape does not represent the goal of a liberal education, which is to pursue, inquire, seek, and extend knowledge of whatever subject is at hand, fiction no less than science." Now, first of all, this is an extraordinarily poorly written sentence. Second of all, there is no objective evidence provided whatsoever to support these claims, which I find particularly offensive since fiction is compared here to science. Finally, there is no reason that science fiction and fantasy need to be poorly written. In fact, I would argue that strong writing is more necessary when trying to convince readers of something that is, in fact, not true. There are many and varied examples of well-written science fiction and fantasy novels. My advice to the authors of "Writing Fiction" is that they expand their reading before writing again.
The Best Writing Craft Book I Own!!!!!!!!
Customer Rating:
I definitely recommend this book. It has helped me so much in my writing. She breaks things down thoroughly, gives great examples and the exercises are very helpful. Want to be a writer? Buy this book!
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