The Art and Craft of Fiction a Writers Guide

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The Art and Craft of Fiction

A Writer'south Guide2nd Edition ©2017

Cursory, practical, and affordable, The Art and Craft of Fiction gives aspiring writers all they need, in a friendly voice that students love. Michael Kardos focuses on technique and presents fiction writing as a teachable (and learnable) art. With an organisation built on methods and process r...

Brief, applied, and affordable, The Art and Craft of Fiction gives aspiring writers all they need, in a friendly voice that students honey. Michael Kardos focuses on technique and presents fiction writing as a teachable (and learnable) fine art. With an organization built on methods and process rather than traditional literary elements, Kardos helps students begin their stories, write strong scenes, apply images and research detail, revise for aesthetics and mechanics, and finish and polish their own stories. Instructors trust The Art and Arts and crafts of Fiction to help structure their course, and reinforce and complement their teaching points with examples and exercises. A brief fiction anthology at the dorsum of the book includes xv selections that instructors praise for their usefulness in the creative writing classroom.

     The Art and Arts and crafts of Fiction is available in a diverseness of e-volume formats. For more than information well-nigh our eastward-book partners, visit macmillanlearning.com/ebooks.

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Cursory, applied, and affordable, The Art and Craft of Fiction gives aspiring writers all they need, in a friendly voice that students honey. Michael Kardos focuses on technique and presents fiction writing as a teachable (and learnable) art. With an organization congenital on methods and process rather than traditional literary elements, Kardos helps students begin their stories, write strong scenes, use images and research detail, revise for aesthetics and mechanics, and finish and polish their own stories. Instructors trust The Art and Arts and crafts of Fiction to help structure their course, and reinforce and complement their teaching points with examples and exercises. A cursory fiction anthology at the back of the book includes xv selections that instructors praise for their usefulness in the creative writing classroom.

     The Fine art and Craft of Fiction is available in a diverseness of e-book formats. For more information most our e-book partners, visit macmillanlearning.com/ebooks.

Moves students from learning arts and crafts — to creating fine art.  Michael Kardos gets writers started with a focused approach to beginning, ending, and revising a story. Highly-praised chapters on how to write compelling scenes and stories movement students through technique — and toward artistry.

A "boot camp" of the basics. A favorite among reviewers, a "boot camp" affiliate on mechanics helps writers refine their work and avoid common errors, such equally mispunctuated dialogue and comma splices.

Only enough stories. Plenty of practice. A brief album of 15 stories, referenced ofttimes with the instructional chapters, offers models that Kardos draws on in his didactics — including Tobias Wolff, Jhumpa Lahiri, Sherman Alexie, and other masters of the brusque story form. Lively assignments and educatee examples assist writers build on what they learn.

Friendly, curtailed, and speaks to students as swain writers.  Kardos gives students just the right amount of guidance — in a conversational tone that reviewers describe as "pitch perfect."

New to This Edition

Practical communication on research. In a new section in Chapter 2, developed with the input of numerous creative writing instructors, Kardos walks students through the dos and don'ts of researching material to include in their stories, and offers advice on how to balance research with the creative writing procedure.

Compelling new album selections. Stories past Etgar Keret, Susan Perabo, and Kevin Moffett round out an anthology instructors praise. Students dear –and learn from—these works.

New exercises. The second edition includes new exercises on drawing on experience, describing events, opening stories, and achieving clarity.

To get the most out of The Fine art and Craft of Fiction, assign information technology with LaunchPad Solo for Literature,which can be packaged at no additional cost. In this grade space, you tin can build interactive, collaborative assignments around your favorite reading selections and video content – and draw on the content we offering there, likewise.

"Easily the virtually readable craft textbook I've ever encountered. I bask reading the capacity for their own sake. I know my students feel the same way."
– John Vanderslice, University of Central Arkansas

"Each semester, I take students who tell me how helpful they plant this book to be."
– Betty Wisepape, Academy of Texas–Dallas

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Table of Contents

Fine art & Arts and crafts

ane. Thinking, Reading, and Writing Like a Author

Beingness a Writer Ways Paying Attention
Why a Textbook (And Why This Textbook?)
Rules of the Route
Reading Similar a Writer
Finding Ideas for Stories
A Word to the Novelist
What's the Point of All This?

two. The Extreme Importance of Relevant Item
Details and Believability
Details and Engaging the Reader
Showing and Telling
Fiction Writing every bit Telepathy
Getting the Details Right (a.k.a. Researching Your Story)
Which Details to Include?
Zilch More Than Feelings
Details and the Writer'south Sensibility

3. Starting Your Story
What Beginnings Practice
Reveal Cardinal Information
Institute the Story's Stakes
Start with a Interruption from Routine
Consider Starting In Medias Res
Whose Perspective Should You lot Cull?
Other Information to Convey Sooner Rather Than Afterwards
Ultimately, Information technology's Your Call

iv. Working with the Elements of Fiction
Character
Plot
Causality
Setting
Betoken of View (POV)
Voice
Theme

5. Creating Scenes: A Nuts & Bolts Approach
Dialogue
Narration
Description
Exposition
Interiority
Scene-Writing, Final Notes

six. Organizing Your Story: Form & Construction
Classic Story Construction and the Freytag Pyramid
Conflict
Climax
Conclusion: What Has Changed?
Form = Pregnant
Other Means to Tell a Story
Scene and Summary
Case Report: Structural Fake

seven. Writing a Compelling Story
High Stakes
Grapheme Desire
Agile Protagonists
The Atypical Day (A Break from Routine)
External Conflict
Internal Disharmonize / Presenting Characters' Interior Lives
Compressed Fourth dimension Period
Suspense (As Opposed to Withheld Information)
Originality

8. Ending Your Story
The Challenge
Strategies for Catastrophe Your Story
Common Pitfalls
Getting the Words Right
Two Final Thoughts on Endings

ix. The Power of Clarity
Vagueness verses Ambiguity
Clear Words
Clear Sentences
Clear Stories: A Few Words of Communication
Clarity: Some Final Thoughts

10. Revising Your Story
The Case for Revision
What Is "Revision," Anyway?
What Is a "First Draft"?
Twelve Strategies for Revision
How Exercise Y'all Know When Your Story Is (Really, Truly) Washed?

BOOT CAMP

xi. The Mechanics of Fiction: A Writer's Boot Camp

Formatting and Punctuating Dialogue
Addressing a Person in Dialogue
Paragraph Breaks in Dialogue
Double Quotation Marks / Single Quotation Marks
Quick Quiz: Repair This Sentence
Scare Quotes
Formatting and Punctuating a Graphic symbol'southward Thoughts
Comma Splices
"Who" and "That"
Exclamation Marks, Question Marks, All-Caps
Conjugation of "Lie" and "Lay"
Quick Quiz: Choose the Correct Judgement
Sentences That Brainstorm with an "-ing" Give-and-take
Some Final Communication
The Mechanics of Fiction: Practice Test

Album

12. A Mini-Anthology: 15 Stories

1. Sherman Alexie, This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona
2. Richard Bausch, Tandolfo the Not bad
3. Kevin Brockmeier, A Legend with Slips of White Paper Spilling from the Pockets
4. Percival Everett, The Appropriation of Cultures
5. Becky Hagenston, Midnight, Licorice, Shadow
6. Etgar Keret, What, of this Goldfish, Would You Wish?
seven. Jhumpa Lahiri, This Blessed Business firm
eight. Jill McCorkle, Magic Words
nine. Kevin Moffett, One Dog Year
ten. Tim O'Brien, On the Rainy River
11. ZZ Packer, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere
12. Susan Perabo, Indulgence
13. Karen Russell, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
14. John Updike, A&P
fifteen. Tobias Wolff, Bullet in the Brain

Michael Kardos

Michael Kardos (michaelkardos.com) is an acquaintance professor and co-managing director of the artistic program at Mississippi State University. He is the writer of the story collection One Terminal Good Fourth dimension (Press 53), and the novels The 3-Mean solar day Affair, Before He Finds Her, and the forthcoming Barefaced, all from the Mysterious Press imprint of Grove Atlantic. His short stories have appeared in The Southern Review, Crazyhorse, Prairie Schooner, and many other magazines and anthologies. His essays about fiction accept appeared in The Writer's Chronicle and Writer's Digest. Kardos received his B.A. from Princeton University, his G.F.A. from The Ohio Country University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri. Kardos is author of the Bedford text, The Fine art and Arts and crafts of Fiction: A Writer'southward Guide and a contributor to Bedford's LitBits where he blogs nigh teaching artistic writing.

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Bibliography -- Resource for Fiction Writers

vegasabachis.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.macmillanlearning.com/college/us/product/The-Art-and-Craft-of-Fiction/p/1319030424