The Art of Time in Fiction: As Long as It Takes
10 best books like The Art of Time in Fiction: As Long as It Takes (Joan Silber): The Art of the Poetic Line, The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction, The Art of Syntax: Rhythm of Thought, Rhythm of Song, On Becoming a Novelist, The Art of Description: World into Word, Novelist's Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes, Dialogue, The Writer's Guide to Psychology: How to Write Accurately about Psychological Disorders, Clinical Treatment and Human Behavior, The Half-Known World: On Writing Fiction, Emotional Structure: Creating the Story Beneath the Plot: A Guide for Screenwriters
| Author | James Longenbach |
| ISBN | 1555974953 |
The Art Of series is a new line of books reinvigorating the practice of craft and criticism. Each book will be a brief, witty, and useful exploration of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry by a writer impassioned by a singular craft issue. The Art Of volumes will provide a series of sustained examinations...
| Author | Dean Young |
| ISBN | 1555975623 |
In The Art of Recklessness, Dean Young's sprawling and subversive first book of prose on poetry, imagination swerves into primitivism and surrealism and finally toward empathy. How can recklessness guide the poet, the artist, and the reader into art, and how can it excite in us a sort of wild receptivity,...
| Author | Ellen Bryant Voigt |
| ISBN | 1555975313 |
With intelligence and precision, Ellen Bryant Voigt parses out the deft and alluring shape of poetic language in The Art of Syntax. Through brilliant readings of poems by Bishop, Frost, Kunitz, Lawrence, and others, Voigt examines the signature musical scoring writers deploy to orchestrate meaning....
| Author | John Gardner |
| ISBN | 0393320030 |
On Becoming a Novelist contains the wisdom accumulated during John Gardner's distinguished twenty-year career as a fiction writer and creative writing teacher. With elegance, humor, and sophistication, Gardner describes the life of a working novelist; warns what needs to be guarded against,...
| Author | Mark Doty |
| ISBN | 1555975631 |
"It sounds like a simple thing, to say what you see," Mark Doty begins. "But try to find words for the shades of a mottled sassafras leaf, or the reflectivity of a bay on an August morning, or the very beginnings of desire stirring in the gaze of someone looking right into your eyes . . ." Doty finds refuge in...
| Author | Raymond Obstfeld |
| ISBN | 0898799732 |
Writing page-turning fiction depends on your ability to create rock-solid, believable scenes. Scenes act as dynamic structures that thrust both your characters and readers forward through conflict, baiting them with goals that may–or may not–be obtained. Writing good scenes makes the difference...
| Author | Lewis Turco |
| ISBN | 0898793491 |
This was pretty decent.
I thought the book didn't really deliver what it promised on the cover (i.e. "How to get your characters talking to each other in a way that vividly reveals who they are, what they're doing, and what's coming next in your story"), even if it did have some useful information....
| Author | Carolyn Kaufman |
| ISBN | 1884995683 |
Because authors tend to write about seriously flawed people, we often delve into the realm of psychology, intentionally or not. Stories in a wide array of genres feature psychologists, psychiatrists, psychopaths, schizophrenics, and any number of other characters that fall within the pale of modern...
| Author | Robert Boswell |
| ISBN | 1555975046 |
A rigorous examination of the workings of fiction by the novelist Robert Boswell, "one of America's finest writers" (Tom Perrotta)
Robert Boswell has been writing, reading, and teaching literature for more than twenty years. In this sparkling collection of essays, he brings this vast experience...
Emotional Structure: Creating the Story Beneath the Plot: A Guide for Screenwriters
The leap from concept to final draft is great, and the task is filled with hard work and horrors. It is here that most writers struggle to get the plot right at the expense of the story's real power. The result is a script that is logical in every way, yet
unmoving. Emotional Structure, by Emmy- and...
| Author | Dorothy Allison |
| ISBN | 0979419816 |
The Writer's Notebook combines the best craft seminars from the Summer Writers Workshop's history with craft essays by some of Tin House's favorite authors and features a list of contributors that reads like a veritable who’s who of contemporary poets and prose writers. Jim Shepard, Aimee Bender,...
| Author | David Jauss |
| ISBN | 1582975388 |
In a satisfying story or novel, all of the pieces seem to fit together so effortlessly, so seamlessly, that it's easy to find yourself wondering, "How on earth did the author do this?" The answer is simple: He sat alone at his desk, considered an array of options, and made smart, careful choices.
In...
| Author | Bonnie Friedman |
| ISBN | 0060922001 |
“In the spirit of Annie Dillard's The Writing Life, Friedman...gives heartfelt counsel to those who need to be coaxed into the creative process."—Washington Post
An indispensable guide for writers that explores the emotional side of writing and offers insightful advice on overcoming...
| Author | Brian Kiteley |
| ISBN | 1582973512 |
Discover Just How Good Your Writing Can Be
If you write, you know what it's like. Insight and creativity - the desire to push the boundaries of your writing - strike when you least expect it. And you're often in no position to act: in the shower, driving the kids to school...in the middle of the night.
The...
| Author | Charles Baxter |
| ISBN | 1555974732 |
Charles Baxter inaugurates The Art of, a new series on the craft of writing, with the wit and intelligence he brought to his celebrated book Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction.
Fiction writer and essayist Charles Baxter's The Art of Subtext: Beyond Plot discusses and illustrates the...
| Author | Sven Birkerts |
| ISBN | 1555974961 |
The Art Of series is a new line of books reinvigorating the practice of craft and criticism. Each book will be a brief, witty, and useful exploration of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry by a writer impassioned by a singular craft issue. The Art Of volumes will provide a series of sustained examinations...
Here is a book about the craft of writing fiction that is thoroughly useful from the first to the last page—whether the reader is a beginner, a seasoned writer, or a teacher of writing. You will see how a work takes form and shape once you grasp the principles of momentum, tension, and immediacy. "Tension,"...
| Author | Kenneth Atchity |
| ISBN | 0393312631 |
Expanding his focus now, Kenneth Atchity adds a substantial new chapter, "Breaking into Show Business," and new material about recapturing the "high" of creativity and maintaining confidence despite setbacks. He shows you how to transform anxiety into "productive elation," how to separate vision...
| Author | Jeff Gerke |
| ISBN | 1582979928 |
What's more important to a story: a gripping plot or compelling characters? Literary-minded novelists argue in favor of character-based novels while commercial novelists argue in favor of plot-based stories, but the truth of the matter is this: The best fiction is rich in both.
Enter Plot Versus...
| Author | Madison Smartt Bell |
| ISBN | 0393320219 |
Focusing on the big picture as well as the crucial details, Bell examines twelve stories by both established writers (including Peter Taylor, Mary Gaitskill, and Carolyn Chute) and his own former students. A story's use of time, plot, character, and other elements of fiction are analyzed, and readers...
| Author | Ron Carlson |
| ISBN | 1555974775 |
Ron Carlson has been praised as “a master of the short story” (Booklist). In this book-length essay, he offers a full range of notes and gives rare insight into a veteran writer’s process by inviting the reader to watch over his shoulder as he creates the short story “The Governor’s Ball.”
“This...
| Author | John Dufresne |
| ISBN | 0393325814 |
Finally, a truly creative—and hilarious—guide to creative writing, full of encouragement and sound advice. Provocative and reassuring, nurturing and wise, The Lie That Tells a Truth is essential to writers in general, fiction writers in particular, beginning writers, serious writers, and...
Creating Character Emotions
| Author | Ann Hood |
| ISBN | 1884910335 |
Sweaty palms. Butterflies in the stomach. Pacing back and forth. There is no doubt this character is nervous. But isn't there a more original, more vivid way to express this emotion? Absolutely. In this unique book, Ann Hood will help you find fresh, creative images, words and gestures to evoke feelings...
