Customer Reviews

Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular: An Informal Textbook

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Tools of the Muse

In his informative and entertaining book,Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular, Rust Hills sets out to reach a broad range of potential writers. He attempts to establish a basic guide, useful to the nascent writer working in a workshop environment and to the solitary writer, who wishes "to learn to read literary stories in such a way as to help...write them." Hills' main idea that he stresses throughout the book revolves around the interrelation of every element within a short story. He writes: "A successful short story will thus necessarily show a more harmonious relationship of part to whole, and part to part...Everything must work with everything else. Everything enhances everything else, interrelates with everything else, is inseparable with everything else- and all this is done with a necessary and perfect economy." Hills formats the book so that each of the major literary terms and devices, essential to the short story writer, receive its own section for deeper analysis. Within these ongoing essays he often uses simplified fictional characters of his own invention to illuminate the discussion at hand. The characters, "Martin" and "Miranda," grow irksome at times, but his point is to make sure the reader unquestionably comprehends. Most of the sections close with a statement that reiterates how the specific device or term fits into the overall design of the whole. He pounds this notion of interrelation into the reader's head. Hills presents a vast array of useful literary terms and devices in a manner that never hinders the logical sequence of the book. His witticisms and fresh style of economic prose help to maintain the momentum and readability through the weighty, technical material. He differentiates the short story from the novel or the sketch. He touches upon the spectrum of characterization: the type as opposed to the stock character, the fixed compared to the moving character. He spends a great length discussing the origin, the meaning, and the contemporary interpretation of every beginning writer's worst enemy, that ill-fated, e-word, "epiphany." Point-of -view, "the most important decisions about techniques" that a writer has to make also receives extensive attention in the book. Hidden within Hills' rich sea of information are some tidbits and treasures from the great masters of the profession. He cites Edgar Allen Poe in the analysis of the short story versus the sketch or novel. Poe writes of a " single and unique effect" to which every word of a short story should lead: "If his (the author's ) very initial sentence tend not to the outbringing of this effect, then he has failed in his first step. In the whole composition there should be no word written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre-established design." To shed light on the discussion of the epiphany, Hills relies upon the man who originated the term's contemporary meaning, James Joyce, "This is the moment which I call epiphany...when the relations of the parts is exquisite...its soul, its whatness leaps to us from the vestment of its appearance. The soul of the commonest object, the structure of which is so adjusted, seems to us radiant. The object achieves its epiphany." Hills does not hold the fallacious belief that he can ultimately teach one to write, rather he states that he's "just showing something of how short stories work." The objective in Hills', Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular, is to equip the potential writer with the necessary tools to create the most incisive and well-crafted fiction possible. As Hills suggests, "All you have to have is originality of perception and utterance."

If you have to read one book on writing, pick Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular. It matters not if you are an aspiring fiction writer or craft journalistic feature stories, you will savor the time spent with Rust Hills book.

This is a practical writing guide. It explains in an understandable fashion all the techniques of fiction - from Character and Action, Foreshadowing and Suspense to Irony and Point of View in a simple and useable fashion. Using experience cultivated over more than 20 years as the Feature Editor of Esquire Magazine, Hills organizes the information in an ingenious fashion. Each chapter not only explains, but also employs the particular technique to demonstrate how it works. Hills amplifies his thoughts with insightful comments on many of the enduring theorists and practitioners of the craft.

My only regret is that it is easier to read about the techniques that to translate them into working stories.

Rust Hills' writing aphorisms range from brilliant to bland (there are parts that are worth only a skim). Where Hills really sizzles is when he bucks conventional wisdom, for instance, his contention that much of today's teaching is derived from the conventions of the Playwright, who is more constrained by the need to explain mood and thought verbally (textually) than the Short Story Writer, who has a different set of tools and problems.

Other sections worth a close read include Hills' analysis of the so-called "Golden Age" of the short story. Hills points out that though there were more titles devoted to short fiction, much of it was pulp and exists today, only in the televison format to which it migrated. For those like me who would criticize the influence of today's MFA programs, Hills makes a strong case that academia has taken over the gestation of young writers from a consolidating (and more indifferent) publishing industry.

The text also could have used more examples from master writers than (I can only presume that it was) Rust Hills himself. Sorensen in her book, for instance, looks at stories such as Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Birthmark. What a shame that we did not get to see the lengthy analysis of a master editor such as Rust Hills on at least one notable piece of fiction; that alone would have driven my rating of this book to five stars.

This really is the best book on short story writing out of the couple of dozen I've read. Lucidly explains what makes a good short story. It's more of an examination of good fiction than a how-to, but it's incisive and valuable. If I could have only one book on writing, this would be the one.

As an editor, not a writer, Hills brings an unusual perspective to the subject. Sadly, he's quite a rambler and I occasionally found his style to be impenetrable. (Dare I say an editor needed an editor?)

There are some good thought provoking bits throughout the book, but they are weighed down by a disproportionate (and evenly distributed) amount of needless chatter and reiteration. The sections are pleasingly short (generally 2-4 pages) but many of them could have been even shorter. In some cases, I felt a section did little to expand upon what was stated in its title. An example being "Knowing a Character," over half of which is made up of arbitrary needling questions.

I did find Hills' talk of "slick fiction" (a term for cliche pulp fiction) and how it has moved from the magazine short story to the modern television show interesting. Unfortunately, I found his instructive voice less informative than his recollection of history.

If you're looking for insight into what makes the short story tick, Hills' book may get the job done but it is at times arduous and frustrating. I would instead recommend a book like Damon Knight's Creating Short Fiction: The Classic Guide to Writing Short Fiction.

Rust Hills has created a reference that is valuable for even the most experienced writer. His expertise in the short-story, after years of editing The Esquire, has allowed him a unique ability to point out those simple things that are the most complicated for writers and offer helpful advice in the correction of these concerns. A brilliant read for anyone interested in writing

I think I've read all I need to know or want to know for now on writing the literary short story. I learnt a lot from this book and liked the way Hills talks straight about the high-flown stuff. I found that his commentary was based a little too much on Henry James--for, against, etc. And in one too many areas I was irritated by his saying one thing and saying that the contrary works, too.

The reading is sometimes arduous, but mostly it's worth reading this book and absorbing all the advice and good inputs that a writer may never receive otherwise.

This book puts to shame much of what's out there in terms of "self-help" writers books. It elaborates on the shortcmings of "slick fiction" as well as outlines the essential ingredients for quality literature.

I like the way this guy gets right to the point. There's no "filler" in this book. He simply says what he wants to say and moves on to the next subject.

The stuff he says is extremely helpful. It is making me a better reader, as well as a better writer. As I read this book I began applying the subjects I read to my writing and noticed improvements in the style and focus of the work.

Great definitions. Easy reading. Perceptive. One of the very best books about the CRAFT of writing.