On Teaching and Writing Fiction [Paperback]

Wallace Stegner (Author), Lynn Stegner (Editor, Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 3, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0142001473 | ISBN-13: 978-0142001479

Wallace Stegner founded the acclaimed Stanford Writing Program-a program whose alumni include such literary luminaries as Larry McMurtry, Robert Stone, and Raymond Carver. Here Lynn Stegner brings together eight of Stegner's previously uncollected essays-including four never-before-published pieces -on writing fiction and teaching creative writing. In this unique collection he addresses every aspect of fiction writing-from the writer's vision to his or her audience, from the use of symbolism to swear words, from the mystery of the creative process to the recognizable truth it seeks finally to reveal. His insights will benefit anyone interested in writing fiction or exploring ideas about fiction's role in the broader culture.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The prolific (and Pulitzer Prize-winning) Stegner wore many hats as a writer--novelist, essayist, historian, biographer--but the subject closest to his heart was fiction. However, although a father of the creative writing program, he composed few pages on fiction as received art and teachable craft. This slim volume brings them together, essays and interviews, published and unpublished, to provide invaluable guidance for writers of all levels. Though there is practical advice here, these pieces don't provide blueprints for building a work of fiction but rather a shopping list of the tools a good writer needs in her toolbox: patience, humility, and character. It's all stated so epigrammatically that readers who underline are advised to start with a fresh pen. What lingers is a refreshingly classic (to call it old-fashioned would imply we don't need it) sense of the writer as a well-rounded individual. As daughter-in-law Lynn Stegner writes in the foreword, Wallace Stegner might have said, "A writer must aim to be the sort of man from whom a masterpiece is possible." Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Wallace Stegner (1909-1993) was the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including the National Book Award-winning The Spectator Bird and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Angle of Repose. He received the Robert Kirsch Award from the Los Angeles Times for his lifetime literary achievement.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (December 3, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142001473
• ISBN-13: 978-0142001479
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #327,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lessons from a True Teacher, March 30, 2005

By 

Debbie Lee Wesselmann (the Lehigh Valley, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: On Teaching and Writing Fiction (Paperback)

Wallace Stegner was known during his lifetime as one of the greatest teachers of creative writing. As the founder of the creative writing graduate program at Stanford, he taught some of today's best known writers. This slim volume compiles some of his essays and interviews that illuminate his views about what it takes to be a fiction writer - and what it takes to instruct one. The book, however, is probably more useful to aspiring fiction writers than to teachers.

"Fiction: A Lens on Life" offers Stegner's philosophy about what serious fiction should aim to be. "Creative Writing" discusses the use of language, insight, sensory description, layered significance, and point of view - all supported with examples from literature. In "On the Teaching of Creative Writing", the reader is treated to a lively interview conducted at Dartmouth College when Stegner was in residence as a Montgomery Fellow. "To a Young Writer" is perhaps the least interesting of the group - a somewhat condescending "letter" about what fiction writers must face in a hostile world. The most practical chapter is "A Note on Technique", four pages of basic rules that a fiction writer would do well to master.

While this book cannot be called a true how-to book, the lessons it offers are well worth considering for those who are, or who hope to be, in the writing profession.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable, December 29, 2004

By 

Christopher Swan (Palm Springs, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: On Teaching and Writing Fiction (Paperback)

Simple. Elegant. Potent. This thin paperback is a Master-Class on the Creative Writer. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author harnesses both his Socratic teaching philosophy and his obvious understanding of the literary modus operandi to pass on his knowledge of what the creative writer is and, more importantly, what he or she does on the page. From caveats of the craft to criticism of critics and on to methods of cultivating one's own potential as an Artist, this collection of essays and letters is, at the same time, a love letter to creative writing, an invaluable guide to those new to the art form, an informative advisory to those looking to teach it, and a humbling reminder of the essential tools needed for those craftsmen and craftswomen already sawing, nailing, and sanding their own literary projects.

Many thanks to Lynn Stegner for taking the time needed to compile and publish the collection and, of course, many thanks to Mr. Stegner himself for having taken the time to compose it in the first place.

And to any and everyone who picks up a copy...enjoy!

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Full of good advice., September 2, 2006

By 

J. Bosiljevac (san fran, ca) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: On Teaching and Writing Fiction (Paperback)

This is a thin volume on writing (more than teaching) fiction from a great American author and someone who helped pioneer the modern fiction workshop by running the Stanford creative writing department for many years. This book probably won't help beginning writers as much as other how-to books on fiction writing. The chapter with the most practical advice on mechanics is only four pages long, with much of the advice simply listed whereas other writing books might spend entire chapters on each point. But these are things that anyone would learn in any beginning fiction class, and Stegner concerns himself with larger issues. Among those, how to deal with the pressures of publication, questions of audience, point-of-view, and putting what is said before how it is said. There's a lot of wisdom packed into this small book. You'll find yourself using your highlighter often.