Customer Reviews

Writing Fiction: The Practical Guide from New York's Acclaimed Creative Writing School

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great book. It is well organized, concise, and easy to read.

My biggest problem in writing is disorganization. I have many ideas but I prioritize and organize them poorly. I plant so many trees that I forget about how the forest will look. This book helped me by providing a framework for building fiction. It discusses the major components of fiction: character, plot, theme, voice, etc. Then it tells you what the choices are for each. Then it provides you examples of authors who have made each of the choices, and it discusses why they did so. Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral", in the back of the book, is analyzed throughout.

This book has even improved my READING skills. Now when I read a novel I ask, "why did the author choose to throw in that detail? Why did he use the first person instead of third?"

Great, great book. Highly recommended.

Shopping for and reading books on creative writing is a long and sometimes painful process. Some books get great reviews and are interesting to read, but don't have much actual writing instruction. Rather, the reader is encouraged to just sort of "go with the flow" or "follow where the story takes you".

Not so with the Gotham Writer's Workshop book on writing fiction. This book has a great balance of solid, no-frills writing instruction, along with exercises entitled "Your Turn". Your Turn means exactly what it sounds like - after reading and learning about one of the fundamentals of fiction, you can try to incorporate it into your own work. The exercises are short and focus just on what's been covered.

What I liked most about this book is every subject of writing is covered, and covered well. In the beginning you'll start by developing a writing schedule, creating a character, giving them a name and most importantly, a strong desire. One of the first thing the book teaches is that passive characters who don't really want anything usually don't make for exciting reading.

The chapters progress, touching upon plot, description, Point of View (a great chapter that isn't given enough focus in most other writing books), and at the end the book even shows you how to get your work into print, and gives you a heads-up about any potential stumbling blocks along the way.

One of the things that makes the book so good is that the book is written by a collection of authors, each one covering their "specialty" . All of the writers are accomplished fiction instructors and writers and certainly know what they are talking about.

When appropriate, examples are taken from famous works such as The Great Gatsby to prove or illustrate a concept. This is very helpful. In addition, the text includes a short story, Cathedral, which is analyzed throughout.

The book lays down the "rules" of fiction, but also encourages you (once you're familiar with them) to break them occasionally as you gain experience and knowledge.

This is a terrific book, and if you want to write fiction, it is a must have.

GWW's book on fiction writing is good for conveying the nuances of artistic style, but I think it misses some of the fundamental points of story telling. The book describes character, plot, point of view, voice, setting, and theme from the point of view that you are writing literary fiction - opposed to genre fiction. In other words, there is more emphasis on writing flowing prose than a driving story. This is well and good, but without a solid story, the odds of a book being successful are low. I would recommend that you read Jerry Cleaver's book, Immediate Fiction, before reading the GWW book. I've found Cleaver to be a lot more useful in getting that first draft written. Cleaver emphasizes that plot is the story's foundation and must be focused upon first and foremost. GWW argues that plot is something that emerges as you write - you write a draft, and then figure out what the book is about. In my opinion, the Cleaver method is much more efficient for getting to the end goal of an entertaining story (entertaining = successful). Several additional Cleaver axioms on storytelling that GWW fails to communicate are:

1. You must write badly first. The less you care, the better you write. Overwrite and cut later. Start with just action and dialogue - add exposition in later drafts.
2. Identification is why the reader reads and why the writer writes. Write a story where the reader can identify with the character's conflict.
3. Conflict is key. The fundamentals of a good story are conflict, action and resolution. Story = conflict + action + resolution. Conflict = character want + obstacle. Action = emotion + showing. You will never have writer's block if you understand the driving goals of your characters, and the obstacles that prevent the resolution of these goals - just ask yourself what the character would do next to achieve his or her goals in light of the current circumstances, and go from there. Once the character achieves his or her driving goals (conflict resolution), end the story.
4. If the characters are having a good time, the reader is not. During conflict, things should get progressively worst for the characters, thereby revealing the character's meddle, progressing the plot, allowing reader identification (identification = vulnerability), etc.
5. Scene is the purest form of showing. Use scenes to focus on the active ingredients of dialogue and action - minimize exposition (blocks of `telling') such as excess setting descriptions or explanations for the reader.
6. Good action and dialogue accomplish three things without exposition - they set scene, they reveal character and they move plot. Make sure all action and dialogue are doing these three things.

And there's a lot more good advice in Cleaver's book, but these are the core rules. The key message is that writing a good story is a craft that can be learned and mastered by anyone - not art restricted to the gifted! I can tell you from personal experience that if you follow Cleaver, writing becomes much, much easier.

I would also recommend Steven King's On Writing for a good, no non-sense advice on writing. King's fundamental rule - if you want to be a writer, you have to write and read significant amounts on a daily basis (2,000 words a day, every day, without exception). Otherwise don't even bother - sobering, but true.

Bottom line, my recommendation is to go with Cleaver's advice for writing first drafts and the GWW advice for polishing later drafts.

I have read other books on "How To Write" and they are pale in comparsion to "Writing Fiction". This book gets to the heart of writing. It was easy to read and understand. They have excellent writing exercises. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has desire to write. This book is not only for writing fiction but applies to all genre.

I liked this book a lot, I actually came out of it feeling smarter. About a third of it reminded me of high school English classes (metaphors, theme, etc etc). The only thing I would have liked to see is the analysis of commercial fiction. If commercial fiction is what you want to write, this probably wouldn't be the best book for you. This is for the people who want to write the great American Novel, or short story. The chapters on dialogue and pacing were very helpful to me. I was also happy to see the book go into how to form your paragraphs and not to use too many of the same length. That's usually something I don't see address in other writing books. Overall, a good read and would highly recommend.

An excellent primer to hone your writing skills. The short story offered, Cathedral by Raymond Carver, seemed to me a weak and amateurish example to hold up, but the advice is very sound and practical. Teachers of the Gotham Writers' Workshop trade off in each chapter, expounding by turns on their areas of expertise. They address common problems for beginning writers and offer practical help for resolving those problems. I found the chapter on Theme particularly useful (it is provided by Terry Bain). The book concludes with a useful cheat sheet to help focus the novice writer's work. My only experience with the Gotham Writers' Workshop was overpriced and offered little to no practical help or feedback on my writing examples. So I can't recommend them based on my experience -- just get the book and work on your own is my advice.

Unbelievable amount of wisdom in less than 300 hundred pages. I spend an hour flippin through about 50 books at Barnes and Nobles and none come close to this one. Very well organized, great exercises, and just plain good advice. The short story example is great. Another reviewer slammed it, but I think he missed the point entirely.

Gotham Writers' Workshop's _Writing Fiction: the Practical Guide_ demystifies the craft of writing. In step-by-step progression, students learn to shape rambling narratives into edgy fiction. This is the best book I have ever used in the creative writing classroom. I am grateful to editor Alexander Steele for making my job so much easier.

Denise Low, professor of creative writing

Excellent. Great, practical exercises. Highly recommended. I've been a professional writer for more than 20 years and this is the best book on writing I've read.

I recommend this book to every writer I know. Writing Fiction is the first book that I've written a review for, simply because it delivers so much value to me and to people I know well.

Having taught English Lit and written for many years, I'd rate Writing Fiction as the best basic Fiction textbook available, whether for aspiring fiction writers or for teachers of writing fiction. If I were teaching college or high-school English again, I would definitely include this affordable text in my curriculum.

My wife is a song-writer and children's book writer and she found Writing Fiction useful as well.

Here's why:

1) Multiple points of view! Because it's a compilation written by 11 author/teachers, you get 11 nuanced chapters that share multiple perspectives.
2) It leaves ego at the door. This ensemble approach ensures that there isn't the filler, the personal rants, or the ego you find in most single-author how-to books.
3) Based on top-rated Manhattan Writers Methods. Gotham has offered top-rated online and in-person fiction classes in Manhattan since the 90s. Each chapter is a refinement for their 10 week classes. I have also taken their classes and find them to be a great value. See www.writingclasses.com. The book is essentially a more detailed version of the lectures and writing assignments for their Fiction basic 10 week course.
4) As such, the book is a great companion to any writing or fiction class.
5) Completeness: the 11 chapters leave out nothing that is required to become a published fiction author (except for putting in the 2+ hours per day of time on task!)

Finally, I keep a copy of this book within reach (into which I have made tons of notes), so I use it over and over as a reference and refresher.

Happy writing to you!