Making Shapely Fiction

by Jerome Stern

Overview

A deft analysis and appreciation of fiction—what makes it work and what can make it fail.

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," Stern says, "is the mother of fiction. When tension and immediacy combine, the story begins." Dialogue and action, beginnings and endings, the true meaning of "write what you know," and a memorable listing of don'ts for fiction writers are all covered. A special section features an Alphabet for Writers: entries range from Accuracy to Zigzag, with enlightening comments about such matters as Cliffhangers, Point of View, Irony, and Transitions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393321241
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/17/2000
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	263,699
Product dimensions:	8.22(w) x 5.38(h) x 0.78(d)

About the Author

Jerome Stern, a professor of English and popular culture, is the author of an acclaimed book on writing, Making Shapely Fiction. His incisive monologues are regularly heard on National Public Radio.

Table of Contents

What This Book Does and Why

Acknowledgements

PART I. THE SHAPES OF EICTION

Facade

Juggling

Iceberg

Last Lap

Trauma

Specimen

Gathering

A Day in the Life

Onion

Journey

Visitation

Aha!

Bear at the Door

Snapshot

Blue Moon

Explosion

PART II. A CAUTIONARY INTERLUDE

Write What You Know

Don't This: A Short Guide to What Not to Do

PART III. FROM ACCURACY TO ZIGZAG: AN ALPHABET FOR WRITERS OF FICTION

Accuracy

Advice

Allegory

Allusion

Ambiguity

Anti-hero

Archetype

Atmosphere

Avant-garde

Bathos

Beginnings

Catharsis

Character

Cliche

Cliff-hanger

Coincidence

Comedy

Convention

Crisis

Description

Dialect

Dialogue

Diction

Didacticism

Documents/Diaries/Letters

Endings

Epigram

Epilogue

Epiphany

Episode

Exposition

Fable

Fairy Tale

Farce

Flashback

Formula

Frame Story

Freytag's Pyramid

Genre

Grotesque

Hero

Imagery

Imagination

Immediacy

Interior Monologue

Intrigant

Irony

Legend

Local Color

Melodrama

Metafiction

Metaphor and Simile

Mise-en-scene

Motif

Myth

Names

Narrative

Narrator

Naturalism

Negative Positive Knowledge

Novel

Objective Correlative

Parable

Parody

Pathetic Fallacy

Picaro

Places and Place Names

Plot

Poetic Justice

Point of View

Position

Premise

Profanity/Obscenity

Psychic Distance

Reading

Realism

Red Herring

Resolution

Revision

Roman a Clef

Romance

Satire

Scene

Science Fiction

Sentimentality

Sex

Short Novel

Short Story

Showing and Telling

Stereotype

Stories within Stories

Stream of Consciousness

Structure

Style

Subtlety

Suspense

Suspension of Disbelief

Symbolism

Tension

Texture

Theme

Title

Tour de Force

Transitions

Trust Your Material

Voice

Workshops

Zigzag

PART IV. READABLES: WHERE TO LEARN MORE

Editorial Reviews

"Clarifies the mumbo-jumbo. For serious students of fiction, Jerome Stern is the Alpha crow. Follow him and shave the miles off your flying time."

Bob Shacochis

"Jerome Stern has done us all a favor with this canny little book. If you are interested in writing, read it now. This is an expert writer and teacher sending his notes from the trenches. Never has caution been so exhilarating, advice so wry. I will use this book."

Ron Carlson

"A complete original. The warm, witty, wise voice draws you in, and you leave the book wanting to write—and knowing how."

Jesse Lee Kercheval

"Offers a raft of examples that explain the techniques used by novelists from Flaubert to Updike—an eminently helpful and engaging writer's guide."

Booklist

"Useful on the most practical level.... [Stern] plunges his readers into the middle of things."

New York Times

Offers a raft of examples that explain the techniques used by novelists from Flaubert to Updike—an eminently helpful and engaging writer's guide.

Booklist