Customer Reviews

How to Write Short Stories 3E (ARCO's Concise Writing Guides)

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I bought this book based on reviews here and was horribly disappointed. To describe it as "an upadate of the classic guide to constructing insightful, well-crafted short stories" is ridiculous. The book features a VERY poorly written, awkward, hackish "model" short story called "Mosquito" that demonstrates all kinds of terrible traits but says they are good. A sample exchange from that story: "What'd you do that for!" Todd demanded without lifting his eyes. "It was hurting," said Andrew, as he carefully picked the mosquito from the small stain in which its crumpled body adhered." Other examples from the text are so poor they're almost comical. To illustrate metaphor: "Her moods are the endless myriads of a kaleidoscope."

Buy this book only if you miss instruction from amateurish creative writing teachers and think good writing consists of finding a humdred different ways to say, "he said." You'd be far better off with SELF-EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS, which intelligently describes the kinds of faults this book exemplifies. Then you can REALLY learn how to show not tell, which this book also proclaims--and then demonstrates the opposite. A classic indeed.

I'd recommend this book, BUT only to short story writers who are considering the short story medium; that's to say, newer writers who are just starting to get a feel for the short story. This book is basic; and I'd expect nothing less of a "How To" book as thin as 135 pages. How to Write Short Stories reminds us that every good short story has a setting, a plot (with conflict), character development, and a theme. The book dives into dialogue and description, but the examples aren't that great. Is your story best told in the first or third person, or some variation? This book also opens the door to the strengths and weaknesses of perspective. It's not a bad book and it reads quickly, but it feels like a creative writing 101 class at a local community college. (Nothing against community colleges. I received my first two degrees from a community college.) The best part of this book is that it uses "The Birthmark" by Nathaniel Hawthorne as one of its samples. (However, is analyzing a classic without analyzing a modern written short story wise? That is like analyzing the movie, "Casablanca" as an approach to making movies today. The classics are great, but we need to look at the art form across time.)

Ms. Sorenson's book was the perfect accompanament to a short story course I took last January 2002 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The course taught how to write short stories that get accepted for literary magazines. It was taught by a young woman with a Master's Degree in Creative Writing. The course was excellent and when I found this book, I felt it was the course all over again. It covers so much of what we took, and, of course, I couldn't remember everything. This book, which I have already read once, is the perfect reference book for writing literary short stories. I have been recommending it to anyone interested in the short story writing form. I can't tell you how happy I was to have found it. I have read so many books on how to write short stories and they all tend to be the same, but this one takes your hand and walks you step by step through the process. I can't praise this book enough.

Keep up the good work, Ms. Sorenson.

Sandra Merz.

Sorenson's coverage of the mechanics of short story writing is brief and focuses on the craft, rather than the art, of writing. While she does well by covering theme, character, plot, setting, point of view, dialogue, and description, she offers little more than three to five pages on each. Writers wanting more than the basics on each of these elements will be disappointed.

However, 'How To Write Short Stories' does have something to give both novice and accomplished writers. Distinguishing it from the many other works on short story writing is her inclusion of three entire short stories and a paragraph-by-paragraph analysis of each. Using this technique, Sorenson shows the reader how concepts like theme and point of view are actually integrated into stories that work. She also includes extracts of stories in the chapters on the elements of writing to add clarity and comprehension to her advice. This analysis made the book a worthwhile read.

Other features include a checklist to help the reader ensure they have omitted no essential ingredient from their story, a chapter of tips on breaking into print, a section on basic grammar that includes explanations on the different types of clauses and phrases, and a handy glossary of the writing concepts and jargon mentioned in the preceding chapters.

This is a great guide to have after you've read all those articles and books on short story writing. Not a deep, wordy book on the art of short story writing, it neatly summarizes most of the points you were supposed to get out of that other reading. Each section includes outlines/checklists for analyzing the various elements of a short story (character, plot, dialog, POV, etc...) and sample stories for illustration. (The last third of the book is a detailed study of Hawthorne's "The Birthmark," which I just skimmed.)

I would guess that advanced writers might find this book too elementary, but as a student, it's been an extremely useful guide that brought the short story writing process into focus.

When I first received this book, I was a little sceptical if not disappointed at it being so thin, however upon reading it, it had A LOT of tips, guides, and suggestions. Very fun to read (not textbook type) and also has some short story analysis.

This book is a very clear guide to writing short fiction. It exactly matched the "ideal" book I was looking for on the subject. It is full of useful and non-trivial guidance that will be of use right from the start. Highly recommended.

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend it. The advice is trite and far too elementary for almost anyone who's read another book on writing. I suppose that if you've just started writing and want some very basic advice, that it might be a great book. But if you know what a plot, characters, "show not tell" is, etc. you've already hit all the points that this book has to offer, probably with better examples.

One of the grave disappointments of this book were the short stories. It sounds like a great idea, right? Use short stories to illustrate the points of short story writing! (I honestly wish that more books would do this.) The problem with this technique is that the short stories in this book (with the exception of one, which I'll whine about later), were so poorly written that it made me think, "If the best I can do after reading this book is the example, let me kill myself now and never write again." Most semi-competent writers can well exceed the level of the short stories presented as examples, which gives some idea as to their mediocrity. (That said, I might recommend this book to a fifth grader who was trying to learn how to write. But if you're not a fifth grader, I'd find a different manual.)

The one exception to the "lousy short story" problem was a Nathaniel Hawthorne story given as an example at the end of the book. My ears perked up when I saw this, as I was truly hoping that now we would learn to write something on par with a writer who was actually good. (If somewhat out-dated) Alas, 95% of the discussion of the story was literary description - the themes, the moods, the history - not bad things, but it was more geared at the English lit types than at the creative writing types. There was a very brief section on techniques to improve writing that could be gathered from this short story. But honestly, these techniques were just a rehashing of the same ones described previously.

Too long, don't read, but...you can do better. I wouldn't bother.

Even though this is a book for learning to write short shorts, I believe, this book can teach anyone to write! Each chapter of a novel is very much a short story. Sharon Sorenson's one hundred and thirteen page book takes you thorough defining and characterizing a story. Writing the beginning and ending and go thorough a check list to complete your story. You will study a short story model, learn to create characters, develope plots, establish setting and learn the all important models for point of view. Reading this book did all these things and more for me! Take your time and read and read and re-read this book.

Author J.D. Holiday

This book was bought for my 10 year old granddaughter that loves to write short little stories. I thought I would try this book and see if she could use it. She loved it! It gave her some great ideas in an easy to understand way. She will be able to refere back to this book many times.