4 out of 4 stars
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Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer’s Guide by William H. Coles, is a complete guide composed of 17 chapters for those who want to achieve excellence in writing a long-lasting and memorable literary fiction story. The author teaches how diving into the world of the imagination will allow one to structure their story with just the right set of elements and make way for endless creativity. Characters take the leading role on this journey towards plot progression and overcome obstacles along the way in pursuit of the author’s thematic goal. Learn the art form to engage readers and make a great literary piece come alive along with a lifetime enlightening message for mankind to reflect upon.
This book lists the key constituents that set literary fiction apart from other genres. Chapter by chapter, the author breaks down these important components and goes into depth describing each one in detail. I like how the author found ways of giving examples so that the book content would be easily understood. First of all, the new terms introduced in each chapter were listed and defined to clear any doubts before further reading the chapter. Second, I loved how the author takes one particular paragraph or dialogue from a literary piece and changes the structure over and over again to use as an example so that the reader can perceive with more clarity the different styles and characteristics used in literary fiction whilst at same time showing the reader what works and what doesn’t . Third, the use of similes and comparisons simplified the understanding because the reader is able to look at things from a different perspective. Fourth of all, I like how the author included a revision chapter (at the end) in the form of questions to aid the literary fiction writer in assuring they have covered all contents in their finished piece.
It was difficult to pinpoint what I didn’t like about the book. I did notice that at the end of each chapter there was a summary, but this wasn’t consistent as I noticed there wasn’t one in chapter 3. Nevertheless, I would rate this book 4 out of 4 stars because I found it very compact and complete and easy to comprehend such a difficult craft as is the literary fiction story.
I would highly recommend this book from ages 15 and above. I think at this age they would have majored the basics of writing and can then go onto a more complex field of writing.
This book has been professionally edited as I have only found just a few typos as you would occasionally find in any great and successful book.
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Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer's Guide
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