71 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Help, October 17, 2001
This is a great book to help the struggling writer, or the writer that just wants to hone his skill. Just like the title indicates, this book is a giant practicum in writing. Joseph Novakovich is able to put a creative writing class into a book with ease. Each chapter is a self-contained lesson that focuses on a topic, from settings to dialogue and everything in between.
Novakovich focuses on each topic with in-depth detail. He provides specific examples from his own work as well as others to get his ideas across. He has found a way to simplify the idea of writing such that it may be easily explained. I felt that Novakovich covered dialogue, setting and description better than any other help-book that I have read. In fact, my problem has always been with "show, don't tell". I was finally able to learn the difference thanks to Novakovich.
But, he doesn't stop with just the lecture part of the lesson. At the end of each chapter is a series of exercises to build your writing muscles. The exercises focus on the material in the chapter that he just covered so you actually learn the ideas by performing them. He also follows each exercise with an explanation of what you should be looking for in your "answer" allowing you to see if you did indeed grasp his teachings.
I have read many books trying to improve my story telling ability. The "Fiction Writers Workshop" is the best one that I've come across to date, and I believe that my writing has improved greatly from the lessons Novakovich provided.
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56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This book will get your writing..., June 12, 2005
This book is chock full of good exercises that will get you writing instead of just reading. I think that's an important part of any instructional writing book because you're probably reading a book like this in order to write, or at least write better.
Novakovich starts with discussing where writers get ideas for fiction. I think this is a good chapter, because it's one of the most asked questions by novices. Reading through the chapter, I realized that any source is a good source. I was also surprised to find that many times writers get their ideas from real life. Then they twist the idea just a bit and "Eureka!", they've got the basis for a story. This was enlightening because I think a lot of beginning writers have the idea that the "real writers" make up the story in their head all the time.
Every chapter ends with a series of writing exercises, and Novakovich encourages you to complete them all. Each exercise will probably take you anywhere from ten minutes to a half hour to complete (depending on how much you put into it). Of course, you can skip the ones that sound boring and nobody's going to give you an "F", but I'd suggest you do all of them if you want to get the most out of this book. You may be very surprised with what you come up with and if one of these ideas starts you on the path to a story, you should look at that as a blessing.
Novakovich covers the major components of fiction thoroughly, but isn't so longwinded that you start to lose interest. Each chapter can be read in probably less than an hour. Still, there is a lot of good advice. His style is very clear and straightforward and a cinch to understand. Novakovich really demystifies the writing process and provides you with exercises that show you that you can do this, too.
While working through this book, most of your time will be spent on the exercises. Some writers may turn up their nose at this idea. Admittedly, it did sound a little bit like "homework" to me when I first started reading it. But I decided to try to keep a good attitude and work through the book anyhow. I can say that once you start writing it, you'll find that your writing is improving and your storytelling skills are beginning to develop. Doing the exercises helps build discipline too, which every writer must have.
To those who don't see the value of writing exercises: it's important to remember that any art has fundamentals that must be learned. The musician's time isn't always spent performing, for example. Much of the time is spent on studying theory, or practicing scales and short exercises until their body is able to perfect the basic movements.
Writing stories is like that too. Even though most of us already know how to type to a certain extent, we are often clueless as to how to go about beginning a story, dealing with conflict, writing dialogue, etc. By reading through this book and doing the exercises, you won't be clueless for much longer.
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32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A complete course!, February 21, 2001
Fiction Writer's Workshop is absolutely an amazing book. It gives examples that help tremendously in understanding all the aspects of fiction writing. There are some great sections in this book! Fiction Writer's Workshop really IS a workshop. It goes through and shows you (with examples and exercises) how to create a real setting for your story, and how to fix a "blah" setting. The book teaches you how to make a character feel alive to your readers, by giving them vivid qualities and emotions. Fiction Writer's Workshop helps you to create a distinctive plot, and even teaches you how to choose correct wording when you deal with dialogues. I'm very impressed with this work by Josip Novakovich. Even an experienced fiction writer would benefit from giving this book a thorough reading. It will get your creativity flowing, get you moving when you are at a block, and help you to improve your skills, or revise a manuscript.
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