Review by Tehreem123 -- Creating Literary Stories: A Fic...
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Tehreem123
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- Latest Review: Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer's Guide by William H. Coles
Review by Tehreem123 -- Creating Literary Stories: A Fic...
[Following is a volunteer review of "Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer's Guide" by William H. Coles.]
The book “Creating Literary Stories: A fiction writer’s guide" is written by a renowned writer named William H. Coles. He is an award-winning author and also a teacher of creative writing. He had also won the Pulitzer Prize. It is a non-fiction book that comprises the guidelines about writing fiction and storytelling.
This book puts the spotlight on many aspects of Fiction writing. It is divided into two sections. Section I comprises twelve chapters that highlight the components of literary fiction like character, narrative techniques that include comparison between in-scene and narrative telling of the story. Furthermore, this part of the book pays attention to rules of dialogue, along with draft examples, as well as topics like the conflict within the story, essentials of creating humor, narrative point of views (POV)s and each point of view is delineated with its advantages and disadvantages. Coles also puts forward the concepts of emotions, desires and motivations and rules of their usage in fiction along with a meaningful explanation of Time in writing fiction. It also contains the fundamentals of storytelling. This book also discloses the reasons for the failure of fiction stories. The second section of this book highlights the principles of characterization, plot, imagery along with the guidelines to write each with examples and their practicality. Coles also propagates the notion about bringing life to the story as well as criteria for a writer to evaluate his/her story after writing it.
I believe that no one can be a writer by reading these manuals, but one can broaden his/her horizon and intensifies the beauty of his/her piece of writing by reading, practicing the techniques and guidelines that are present in this well-written manual. I found this book exceptionally flawless because of the following viewpoints about the book. components of fiction writing, The most inspiring trait of this book is that it introduces each chapter by definitions of terms that are going to be used in the respective chapter. In addition to it, each chapter is concluded with a clear and concise summary of the chapter. Most of the concepts are delineated with examples. Here, I want to share an example from the text. Here Coles explained how to write a simple action into a more energetic manner during in- scene writing with a series of examples:
“There was a bird on a limb. (static)
“The flying bird settled on the limb. (improved with some action)
“The olive branch quivered when the claws of the dusky-brown sparrow grasped the sturdy twig. (lots of action)” (chapter 7, Writing in-scene, pg 46)
Furthermore, the importance of the narrative point of view is expressed with examples. It is necessary to mention that the low impact of the second-person point of view on the reader is contrasted with the other two narrative points of view by the following examples which are extracted from the text.
“You are insecure about Helen’s meaning. You see her raised eyebrow as questioning your authority, so you pull the trigger. You are pleased at the puzzlement in her last look.” (Chapter 11, Second person Point of view, Pg 72)
“I’m not sure what Helen means. But her innocent look inflames me, and I pull the trigger, happy to see the surprise in her eyes as the life goes out of her.” (Chapter 11, Second person Point of view, Pg 73)
“He does not know Helen’s meaning. He is incapable of understanding a soul so trusting and pure. He takes her pleading gaze as mockery and pulls the trigger; he smiles at her stare of surprise and disbelief as she dies.” (Chapter 11, Second person Point of view, Pg 73)
This book guides the writer to write fiction with the incorporation of useful additives, that can make writing more mesmerizing. It is worth to mention here, that Coles makes an utmost effort to make this book interesting for both the writer as well as for readers. The wording of the book is easy to digest. Thereby, I loved this book.
I enjoyed reading this manual, although I am not a fiction writer. But I highly recommend this book to the beginner fiction writers as well as experts. They should read this guide, so their writing would get more pure and effective. This book deserves a rating of 4 out of 4 stars.
******
Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer's Guide
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords
The book “Creating Literary Stories: A fiction writer’s guide" is written by a renowned writer named William H. Coles. He is an award-winning author and also a teacher of creative writing. He had also won the Pulitzer Prize. It is a non-fiction book that comprises the guidelines about writing fiction and storytelling.
This book puts the spotlight on many aspects of Fiction writing. It is divided into two sections. Section I comprises twelve chapters that highlight the components of literary fiction like character, narrative techniques that include comparison between in-scene and narrative telling of the story. Furthermore, this part of the book pays attention to rules of dialogue, along with draft examples, as well as topics like the conflict within the story, essentials of creating humor, narrative point of views (POV)s and each point of view is delineated with its advantages and disadvantages. Coles also puts forward the concepts of emotions, desires and motivations and rules of their usage in fiction along with a meaningful explanation of Time in writing fiction. It also contains the fundamentals of storytelling. This book also discloses the reasons for the failure of fiction stories. The second section of this book highlights the principles of characterization, plot, imagery along with the guidelines to write each with examples and their practicality. Coles also propagates the notion about bringing life to the story as well as criteria for a writer to evaluate his/her story after writing it.
I believe that no one can be a writer by reading these manuals, but one can broaden his/her horizon and intensifies the beauty of his/her piece of writing by reading, practicing the techniques and guidelines that are present in this well-written manual. I found this book exceptionally flawless because of the following viewpoints about the book. components of fiction writing, The most inspiring trait of this book is that it introduces each chapter by definitions of terms that are going to be used in the respective chapter. In addition to it, each chapter is concluded with a clear and concise summary of the chapter. Most of the concepts are delineated with examples. Here, I want to share an example from the text. Here Coles explained how to write a simple action into a more energetic manner during in- scene writing with a series of examples:
“There was a bird on a limb. (static)
“The flying bird settled on the limb. (improved with some action)
“The olive branch quivered when the claws of the dusky-brown sparrow grasped the sturdy twig. (lots of action)” (chapter 7, Writing in-scene, pg 46)
Furthermore, the importance of the narrative point of view is expressed with examples. It is necessary to mention that the low impact of the second-person point of view on the reader is contrasted with the other two narrative points of view by the following examples which are extracted from the text.
“You are insecure about Helen’s meaning. You see her raised eyebrow as questioning your authority, so you pull the trigger. You are pleased at the puzzlement in her last look.” (Chapter 11, Second person Point of view, Pg 72)
“I’m not sure what Helen means. But her innocent look inflames me, and I pull the trigger, happy to see the surprise in her eyes as the life goes out of her.” (Chapter 11, Second person Point of view, Pg 73)
“He does not know Helen’s meaning. He is incapable of understanding a soul so trusting and pure. He takes her pleading gaze as mockery and pulls the trigger; he smiles at her stare of surprise and disbelief as she dies.” (Chapter 11, Second person Point of view, Pg 73)
This book guides the writer to write fiction with the incorporation of useful additives, that can make writing more mesmerizing. It is worth to mention here, that Coles makes an utmost effort to make this book interesting for both the writer as well as for readers. The wording of the book is easy to digest. Thereby, I loved this book.
I enjoyed reading this manual, although I am not a fiction writer. But I highly recommend this book to the beginner fiction writers as well as experts. They should read this guide, so their writing would get more pure and effective. This book deserves a rating of 4 out of 4 stars.
******
Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer's Guide
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes | on Smashwords
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bookreviewmi1111
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- Latest Review: Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer's Guide by William H. Coles
I rated it 4/4 too because I like the author's writing style. This book will be so helpful if someone is a new writer. Thanks for your honest review!
