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Title: Writing Fiction (6th Edition) by Janet Burroway, Susan Weinberg ISBN: 0-321-11795-6 Publisher: Longman Publishing Group Pub. Date: 10 July, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $58.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.77 (22 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Best nuts-and-bolts book on creative writing
Comment: For my money, this is the best book available about creative narrative writing. Burroway's book is used as a text for short story and novel writing. The chapter "Showing and Telling" alone is worth the price of the book.
Other areas covered by chapters in the book are as follows:
Story form and structure
Characterization: Two chapters that cover every thing from dialogue to detailing the five ways to develop a character: authorial interpretation, appearance, action, speech, and thought
Setting and atmosphere
Point of View
Literary devices such as symbol, metaphor, etc.
Theme
Revision: This chapter is the weakest because it discusses revision in general, not giving specific problems that plague manuscripts. The most prevalent flaws are discussed in the book, but I think it would be helpful to list them in this chapter and give page numbers where the technique is discussed.
I have read over twenty books pertaining to creative writing, but this one is better than all the rest. What I like best are the numerous stories that are at the end of each chapter illustrating the points discussed in that section. Each chapter concludes with questions to guide one's study.
In my reading of books about fiction writing, I have found numerous references to this book which indicates to me the quality of this book to other writers.
If you can only afford one book, get this one. I don't think you will be disappointed if you are serious about your fiction.
Rating: 4
Summary: So you want to be a writer, huh?
Comment: Burroway's book "Writing Fiction" is a useful tool for the beginning writer. Inside, examples, exercises and questions for discussion abound. With so many tools, tricks and try-its, one hardly needs the narrative Burroway provides between stories.
Any writer knows (and if not, they soon learn) that good writing comes only one way: by simply doing it. Supplement this dedication with a strong practice of good reading (good fiction, good nonfiction, good whatever) and the writer has the only "magic bullet" in the business. Writing is work -- like any other job.
Burroway's book is a valuable resource for any aspiring writer, though more for the examples provided throughout and the exercises at the ends of each chapter than for any particular piece of advice she offers.
Rating: 4
Summary: Stop Studying, Start Writing
Comment: The steep price of this book gives away that it's a college textbook, not a book for the general reader. There are books for the novice out there that answer the same questions this book but cost you a lot less. But this really is better than most books.
Rather than trying to address itself to writing globally or simply act as boosterism to get you busy, this book actually gets into the nuts and bolts of the writing craft. It answers questions about constructing narrative fiction that even experienced writers have from time to time. There's no fiddling business about comma use--there are other books for that--but for narrative structure, beginnings and ends, building tension, and more, this is your book.
Many books of this type are laden with platitudes and aphorisms about writing. They're pretty, but they don't really help you get going. What really sets this book apart is that, after it gives you your standards and rules, it gives you excerpts from other writers' fiction to demonstrate how it works in the real world of published fiction. Now that's truly useful.
All that said, it suffers from the same problem that afflicts all fiction-writing books: it can't really teach you how to write. It's okay to have this book at hand to answer your questions, give you tutorials, and work on fine-tuning, but the only way you'll really get good at writing is to stop studying books and start writing like you mean it.
This book is good within the limitations that surround all fiction-writing books. To really succeed, you need to just knuckle down and write, but as you're doing that, this is the book to have within reach. Now stop reading my stupid review and start writing your fiction!
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Title: What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers by Anne Bernays, Pamela Painter ISBN: 0062720066 Publisher: HarperResource Pub. Date: 04 December, 1991 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers by John Gardner ISBN: 0679734031 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 June, 1991 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne, Dave King ISBN: 0062720465 Publisher: HarperResource Pub. Date: 01 March, 1994 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner, Raymond Carver ISBN: 0393320030 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Immediate Fiction: A Complete Writing Course by Jerry Cleaver ISBN: 031228716X Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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