Customer Reviews

Building Fiction: How to Develop Plot & Structure

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Over the course of the 7 years I've been writing novel-length fiction, I've read dozens of how-to books. Frequently I've found those written by authors of "lit fic," such as Kercheval, to not be very useful to a writer of commercial, popular fiction. But Kercheval is a happy exception to this rule. I found her book clear and often very insightful on almost every aspect of the novel. Since discussing everything I liked would take too much space and time, I will limit myself to describing the aspect I found most valuable, Kercheval's discussion of conflict.

I particularly liked what Kercheval has to say about "interior dialogue," aka "introspection," or what I often banefully call "musing." She talks about it as the strongest source of revealing internal conflict ("man against himself"), while action is the area in which external conflict ("man against man," "man against nature") is displayed. Of course many people have written about conflict before, but I think Kercheval's unique contribution is the very clear way she explains how one can visualize the resolution of the internal and external conflict. To wit: that the external crisis in a novel cannot be resolved until after the internal crisis is resolved.

I liked her statement in this regard that the internal crisis is the moment the protagonist decides to take the action which can potentially resolve the external conflict. This was, to me, a very thought-provoking way of describing what is traditionally known as the "come to realize" moment which follows the "black moment" of a novel. She suggests that often this moment of internal insight involves the protagonist ceasing to be stuck in the belief that people (including him/herself) can't change. Once the protagonist realizes that he/she *can* change, this permits the growth that allows the character to reframe his/her thinking so as to allow new possibilities for action to occur. The action, as mentioned above, which leads to the resolution of the external conflict.

Finally, I found Kercheval's explanation of the internal conflict techniques of flashbacks, dreams and visions quite useful. In particular, I hadn't thought of the use of visions as a useful technique in popular fiction before, and her analysis of it gave me new food for thought.

Jesse Kercheval has written a book to help novice writers gain a foothold and begin crafting the sort of fiction that will keep readers turning pages. This book is like a self-contained writing course--examining basics like opening hooks, point of view, conflict, and characterization with a clear, readable style.

Building Fiction probably doesn't offer much by way of new advice for anyone beyond the rank of beginner, but if you're ready to explore writing and publication, it offers an excellent starting point. I'll be using it as a text for beginning writing classes in the future.

"she builds a work of fiction just as an architect would design a house"

they say... Don't believe them. This book is, at best, a collection of commented snippets, at worst an unstructured mess. It is neither a book about plot development nor a book about character construction. In fact, once you put this thing down, you'll realize that you have learned much more about what the author thinks of herself, her writing and the way others look at it than about the writing process in general. Building blocks ? Sure. Some real pearls of wisdom (among many):

"The beginning of a story deserves special care and attention because it introduces readers to everything that follows" (p20)

"Simply put, a minor character gets less space in print that the others. A central character gets more" (p76)

"Fiction, no matter what its architecture, is built with words." (p182)

You'll discover many other truly amazing facts : for example that writing like Hemingway takes special skills but can be done (p28), that pet rocks don't make great point-of-view characters (p35), that if you look only at the smaller issues, you risk not seeing the forest for the trees (p134). The list could go on forever... If you make it to page 40 or so, your only motivation to proceed might be to hunt the next hilariously useless piece of advice.

It is clear however that the author can write : on page 78 for example, she drops a very astute indirect suggestion that sex could be one of the ingredients that powers her previous book. Guess you'll have to buy that one if you want to check. <G>

To be honest, I am forced to admit that there are a few useful hints in this otherwise narcissic desert - barely enough to justify 2 stars.

Accidental ?

I frequently use this text in my classes. Building Fiction is the best book I've read in terms of explaining basic short story structure and epiphany. Kercheval illustrates many of the same concepts that Janet Burroway (a teacher of Kercheval's) uses in her famous textbooks, but here, the information is simpler and more distilled. I love the Burroway books, but they are difficult for most beginning students to fully grasp. And while I'm making a case for the Kercheval book's clarity and usefulness for beginners, as a published writer and university teacher, I also found the information personally helpful. I highly recommend this book. And in response to the review that found Building Fiction narcissistic and obvious---I think it can be engaging and helpful to read a writer's personal anecdotes and sometimes the obvious needs to be stated.

This book was recommended by a friend, a published novelist who directs a creative writing program at the university level. It's well worth the cost. Buy it.

I picked up this book at my local book shop, and read it all the way home. The advice from this book has greatly helped out my story. Get this book.