A Short Story Writer's Companion (Paperback)

by Tom Bailey (Author) "Fiction is a lie," Eudora Welty reveals to us in her essay "Place in Fiction," and we're forced to admit it's true..." (more)
Key Phrases: single coherent gesture, lady with the pet dog, particular dramatization, Flannery O'Connor, Gary David, Writing Short Stories (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"This is the best of its type ever written. Every aspiring fiction writer should have it on his/her shelf and consult it often."--Arnold Talentino, State University of New York at Cortland

"A remarkable work--very insightful and honest."--Brian J. Benson, North Carolina A and T University

Product Description
Ideal for anyone interested in writing short stories or for introductory courses in fiction writing, A Short Story Writer's Companion is a highly accessible guide to the craft of creating short fiction. Written in an engaging style, this book enables beginning writers to recognize what works in writing short stories, what doesn't, and why. Part One of A Short Story Writer's Companion discusses fictional truth and significant detail, helping students of the form to make good sense of the often taught creative writing maxim, "Show, don't tell!" Part Two delves into the elements of fiction: character, point of view, plot, setting and time, metaphor, and voice. The author uses specific examples from a variety of widely anthologized short stories to demonstrate how each component functions as a part of the whole and offers advice on the techniques of using each of the elements successfully. Part Three closely examines the fiction-writing process and helps guide writers who may never have written a short story before through drafting, revising, and polishing short stories of their own.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (December 28, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195135555
• ISBN-13: 978-0195135558
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #121,092 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars useful for writers and teachers, November 4, 2003

By	Jay S. Varner "JSVarner" (Wilmington, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Tom Bailey's "A Short Story Writer's Companion" is one of the most helpful writing books that I've read (the others being Bailey's own "On Writing Short Stories" and John Gardner's "The Art of Fiction" and "On Becoming a Novelist"). Bailey's book is steeped in the words of other writers but never showboats his extensive knowledge-each writer's words are cited and Bailey quickly pulls them into the points that he hammers home: whether it be drawing from a Eudora Welty quote to illustrate the many functions of setting or citing David Foster Wallace and William Gass on point of view. Reading Bailey not only informs you on how to write but about writers as well. It serves as a great launching board for these authors.

But Bailey never drowns in outside sources. His own prose is often just as well crafted as those authors he cites and to prove that he's not simply blowing smoke, Bailey includes his Pushcart-winning story "Snow Dreams." It's a dark, character-driven tragedy set in a fully realized world that make not only a gut-wrenching story but promises to be a knockout novel in 2004.

Also included are exercises for young writers to hone their craft. I found these to be very helpful in the few workshops that I've had the opportunity to lead. Ultimately, that proves the value of this book: it's useful not only students and writers but to teachers as well.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Craft of Short-Story Writing: The Basics, March 18, 2008

By	C. J. Singh (Berkeley, California, USA) - See all my reviews

Whenever asked to recommend one basic book on the craft of short-story writing, I choose Tom Bailey's A SHORT-STORY WRITER'S COMPANION and the anthology ON WRITING SHORT STORIES edited by him. Okay, that makes two books; however, with the duplicate material excised, the two could easily be republished as one 350-page book.

In his brief book (184 pages), Tom Bailey helps the beginning writer learn more about the craft of short-story writing than the long-standing textbook "Writing Fiction" by Janet Burroway (434 pages) and the recent textbook "The Making of a Story" by Alice LaPlante (672 pages). Although these three craft-writers include several of the same short stories -- such as Flannery O'Connor's "Everything That Rises Must Converge," Tobias Wolff's "Bullet in the Brain," Tim O' Brien's "The Things They Carried" -- Tom Bailey comments in much greater detail on the craft elements of each story, making it an excellent self-teaching book. The quotes from the stories are so lucidly introduced that the book is easily accessible even without the anthology. Bailey accomplishes more in fewer pages by his superior teaching strategy of providing more detailed craft analysis of fewer stories.

Unlike Burroway and LaPlante, Bailey presents one of his own published stories, "Snow Dreams," to illustrate the writing, copyediting, and publishing processes. And a very well-written story it is, proving that Bailey is master of not only the craft but also the art of short-story writing.

-- C J Singh


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The anthology edited by Bailey, ON WRITING SHORT STORIES,
comprises all of the stories he analyzes in detail in his
A SHORT-STORY WRITER'S COMPANION.

Eighteen stories:
Among them are nineteenth-century classics (Maupassant's "The Strings,"
Chekov's "The Lady with the Pet Dog");
twentieth-century classics (Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants,"
Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily,"
Carver's "Cathedral");
contemporary stories (Cynthia Ozick's "The Shawl,"
John Updike's "A & P,"
Joyce Carol Oates's "Heat,"
Susan Minot's "Lust,"
Louise Erdrich's "Saint Marie").

The anthology also presents illuminating essays by:
Francine Prose, "What Makes a Short Story?";
Joyce Carol Oates, "Reading as a Writer--The Artist as Craftsman";
Andre Dubus, "The Habit of Writing";
Frank Conroy "The Writer's Workshop";
and C. Michael Curtis, "Publishers and Publishing."

Conroy's essay demystifies the Iowa Writer's Workshop model that continues to prevail in MFA programs in Creative Writing.

3 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, December 1, 2003

By A Customer

As a student of Dr. Bailey's, this book greatly helped me explore the short story genre and opened my eyes to how amazing the form can be.