Customer Reviews

How Fiction Works: The Last Word on Writing Fiction, from Basics to the Fine Points

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In his instructional book on writing fiction, Oakley Hall combines good, solid advice with self-congratulatory passages about his own writing. The book is divided into two major parts: "The Dramatic Method" and "Forms of Fiction", the last of which discusses the short story and the novel. Most beginning writers will find the first part--and the bulk of the book--much more helpful than the last, although Hall's discussion of forms is worth reading for the distinctions it makes.

Within the first part, Hall breaks down his "secrets" into eight chapters: Specification; The Senses; Words; Symbol and Indirection; Dialogue; Authority/Point of View; Characterization; Plot. For every topic and sub-topic, he offers concrete, reliable advice followed by examples that illustrate his point. His list of abstract sentences and their transformation to active, concrete ones is helpful in teaching the beginner the difference between bland sentences and the much more vivid demands of good fiction. To his enormous credit, Hall includes nineteen pages on words and word choice, the foundation of writing but a topic often overlooked by amateurs. His chapter on characterization is also strong. Unfortunately, Hall bogs down at the end of chapters when he gives examples; too often, he includes his own writing and, even when he doesn't, he supplies little analysis to aid the reader in understanding the techniques. The strength of this book lies in Hall's knowledge of his topics. He provides small doses of real insight that his readers will be able to apply to their own writing.

As a professor of writing, I have been looking for years for a good fiction textbook that is more affordable than Burroway's On Writing Fiction, and have yet to find one. Hall's work, like many others, falls short. Still, it offers some good lessons that aspiring fiction writers should read, even if the rest of the text is weak.

It starts out being a not a bad reference and some of the examples are adequate, if not particularly insightful, or dealt with in any great depth. The author belongs to the colorful detail school of fiction writing -- he tells you every chance he gets. Fine. But by the final third of the book, the author is into total self promotion, and it gets on ones nerves. Instead of "How Fiction Works" being the title, perhaps it should have been "How Fiction has Worked Very, Very Well for Me." The book appears to have been dashed out to meet a contract committment without any serious thought put into it. Mr. Hall may well be the marvelous writer he claims to be, but as an editor he should aspire to improvement. I bought this book on the basis of an Amazon programmed recommendation and the reviewer comments. Sad to say, the rule about letting the buyer beware still applies.

How Fiction Works is a fantastic book for both the beginning and the experienced writer. Oakley Hall makes no assumptions, and goes into quick and rapid explanations, but thorough, on so many aspects of writing that cause problems. He pays particular attention to the problems in writing, and how to solve them, for example: Specification, concrete vs. abstract, how to utilize all the senses in your writing, words (adverbs, verbs, etc), use of dialogue, symbols, attention to point of view, and characterization (indepth). At the end of the book he pays devotes sections for the short story and novel writing. If you ever had a question, it would be answered in here. It is a quick book to read, and has many of the characteristics of a dictionary, providing quick answers but thorough. So in effect, it becomes a primer that you want on your writing shelf, no matter what type of writing you actually do.

After having read several books on the aspects of fiction writing, I found Mr. Hall's book to be one of the more interesting. Unlike some books on fiction writing, Hall does not eschew the classics, and therefore doesn't consider only genre or current fiction. His ideas on the concrete versus the vague or abstract are certainly not new and can easily be found elsewhere, but he presents his ideas in a way that is seldom dull or strictly academic. I did find his statement on page 166 about MG owners having a "raffish and go-to-hell character" a bit silly if not prejudice, but overall this was one of the better books I have read on the subject of creative fiction.

I bought the book after reading a library copy. I'm impressed with Hall's contribution. The book is a useful addition to your library if you collect books about how-to-write. It's useful because it contains plenty of stuff all the better books ought to contain...and dont. Hall, for example, handles examples much better than most writing instructors. That is; the examples are good and relevant to the point Hall is making.

Thank you, Mr. Hall. Your words are to the point! I like that...I need that...I have time for little else.

I appreciated the "get to it" instruction. Even though I've already written three novels (in the process of the third)I know--like Hall--that I've a lot to learn. Needless to say, novel three is under some serious reconstruction! :)

This book will be highly recommended by me in the future!