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Creating Short Fiction: The Classic Guide to Writing Short Fiction Revised Edition

by Damon Knight (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 39 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0312150945
ISBN-10: 0312150946
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; Revised edition (March 15, 1997)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312150946
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312150945
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #116,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsSimply the best of its class.
By A Customer on June 19, 1997
Format: Paperback
As an MFA student I've been looking at a lot of books about how to write fiction, and very few of them do anything other than encourage you to keep writing. This book teaches you how to write a short story, and encourages you to write a =better= short story (without imposing its own definition of "better"). It is the only "how-to" book in fiction that I have found that I can recommend, and I use it in my own teaching
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4.0 out of 5 starsPractical advice from a talented writer
By Galen K. Valentine on January 29, 2005
Format: Paperback
Knight's, Creating Short Fiction is, perhaps ironically, a short book but he manages to cover the craft of writing from nurturing talent to getting the story completed to what its like being a writer. A lecturer at the Clarion Workshop and author of many short stories and novels he knows how to write. But he doesn't give the reader a step-by-step guide to story writing. Such a recipe, in my limited experience, doesn't exist and Knight does well to avoid trying to give one. What the reader will find are discussions about the elements every story must have and how to use them. He also discusses what a story is and is not, how to generate ideas, and even a few work habits the reader might find effective.

The elements of stories and story writing can be found in many other books. Rather than simply parrot them, Knight is candid about which techniques he doesn't like and why; but that isn't to say the would-be author is allowed to break every rule. He give examples of stories and authors that show the successful use of a particular element or technique e.g. first person subjective point-of-view. And Knight includes diagrams that make the concept of story structure and viewpoint easier to understand. All of this advice is given in a conversational style that is never condescending.

Creating Short Fiction helped me to understand that, like painting or drawing, writing is highly individualized. Every art form has its accepted rules and techniques. And each artist must learn to build upon that foundation, combining the fundamental elements into unique patterns.

There are a few editorial errors, mainly of omission, that make the book feel as if it were the choicest bits from a much longer work. Overall this is an excellent book for the beginning writer, and perhaps the experienced one.
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5.0 out of 5 starsWhere to Begin and Good to Come Back To
By John N. Thornburg on January 18, 2003
Format: Paperback
CREATING SHORT FICTION is an excellent introductory text for writers who want to try their hands at making short stories and starting a novel. However, published writers will learn much from it as well. It has, for example, one of the best analyses of point of view that I have seen in text or scholarly article. Reading Damon Knight's chapter on viewpoint will expand the understanding of many published authors who speak at writers conferences and professors who write introductory texts on literature. This text is about how to write fiction, not a book about how it was like to be a writer of fiction. Its occasional reference to science fiction, fantasy, and detective fiction is a useful corrective to the snob view that such "sub-genre" fiction is unworthy of being mentioned in a "literary" creative writing course. One hundred years from now, some of the short stories and novels that will be literature will come from such sub-genres. My college sophomore fiction-writing students begin with CREATING SHORT FICTION. In the second semester, they use Janet Burroway's WRITING FICTION: A GUIDE TO THE NARRATIVE CRAFT, also an excellent more-advanced text, now in its 6th. edition.
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5.0 out of 5 starsRelevant, Workable, and Reliable
By Gary Townsend on November 22, 2009
Format: Paperback
This is easily one of the best books available on writing short fiction -- and I've read a LOT! Definitely top five. I purchased this book years ago and have read it several times. I've been reading it again and I've been amazed at the new gems I keep finding hidden inside. I'm currently hard at work on several short stories. Just last night I read a passage in which Knight speaks to a particular problem I've been trying to address:

"Madame de Staël once wrote, 'If I had more time, I should have written you a shorter letter.' She meant, of course, that she was working out what she wanted to say as she went along, instead of thinking it through and then saying it briefly. If you are writing short stories this way, they are probably running to seven and eight and ten thousand words, and editors are probably sending them back. Compression is a matter of planning and method -- like packing things carefully in a suitcase instead of throwing them in helter-skelter."

Above is the opening paragraph to two-and-a-half pages of material on "Compression." It ends with an exercise well-designed to address the problem.

Knight's instructions are always specific, never nebulous, and they are relevant, workable, and reliable. As an example: two weeks ago I used one of several methods that Knight outlines in the book to generate an idea for a story. After generating the idea, I did some brief research and then outlined the story as I saw it (Knight addresses these latter two, but I followed my own methods for research and used Algis Budrys's ideas for outlining). When I sat down to write the story, it took me 6 days, and I ended up with a tale nearly 8,500 words long, which is longer than I wanted it to be.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsLoved it. It really helped me grasp the concepts ...

Loved it. It really helped me grasp the concepts of what I needed to do to write my own fiction.

Published 21 days ago by Kevin strang
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Very helpful.

Published 4 months ago by Jody de la Motte Hirst
3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

none.

Published 4 months ago by Gamini Amarasingha
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat read for anyone who wants to write stories

Informational and straight to the point. Great read for anyone who wants to write stories. Highly recommended!

Published 9 months ago by badwolf
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

One of the best books written on writing.

Published 10 months ago by Lou Barone
5.0 out of 5 starsLots of great insight and then BAM

So many nuggets in this one. Lots of great insight and then BAM! Something jumps out at you that changes everything. I love craft books like that.

Published 11 months ago by Tiffany Rae
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

There is a clear sense of instruction with this book!

Published 11 months ago by Bet VanStory
4.0 out of 5 starsNEUROTIC VS WISDOM

The author appears to a bit neurotic for my taste, but full of knowledge.

Published 12 months ago by STAR CROSS
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent book!

I really like this book. it is well written, and offers interesting ideas and constructive exercises. I am thoroughly pleased with it.

Published 14 months ago by LMC
4.0 out of 5 starsLess "academic" and a good read

The author, for the most part, takes the writer's point of view. There is less of the literary critic's yen for rules and more of the imaginative writer's take on how to get words... Read more

Published on February 24, 2014 by Arthur Dent

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