Take Your Characters to Dinner: Creating the Illusion of Reality in Fiction (A Creative Writing Course)

by Laurel A. Yourke

Overview

2017-11-14
An epic fantasy about the return of an ancient, world-destroying evil.God is dead. And Odium, the god who killed the Almighty, is unleashing terrible monsters to destroy humankind. Dalinar Kholin has bonded with the powerful spren known as the Stormfather and led his people to the lost city of Urithiru, but his work is just beginning. Now he has to unite the nations of the world to fight the Voidbringers and prepare for "a millennia-old conflict of ancient creatures with inscrutable motivations and unknown powers." Danger is everywhere, even in his own stronghold, where the highprince Sadeas has been murdered—unbeknownst to Dalinar, by his own son, Adolin Kholin—and in Dalinar's own mind, where certain memories are missing. Meanwhile, Kaladin is looking for his family, and Shallan is struggling to live with what happened to hers. In this third book in the Stormlight Archive series, it feels like the plot is driving the characters rather than the other way around, but those characters are still rich and vivid, and the plot is still gripping and building toward another dramatic climax. Sanderson (Edgedancer, 2017, etc.) manages to tell a compelling story while raising questions about what it means to be a moral actor in a complicated world.Fans of the Stormlight Archive series will enjoy this book, which brings back favorite characters and deepens a well-drawn fantasy world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761816942
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/30/2000
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.53(d)

About the Author

Laurel A. Yourke is a faculty associate in the English Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Acknowledgments
Chapter 2 Preface
Chapter 3 Introduction
Chapter 4 Credibility: Manufacturing Reality
Chapter 5 Characterization: As Many Dimensions as Reality
Chapter 6 Dialogue: Simulating Conversational Reality
Chapter 7 Plot Elements: Drafting Reality
Chapter 8 Characters in Conflict: Reality in Action
Chapter 9 Point of View: Versions of Reality
Chapter 10 Setting: Scenic Reality
Chapter 11 Details: Just Enough Reality
Chapter 12 Texture: The Fabric of Reality
Chapter 13 Revision: A Shapelier Reality
Chapter 14 Connections: Accessible Reality
Chapter 15 Voice: Writer versus Character Reality
Chapter 16 Conclusion: The Writer's Reality
Chapter 17 Glossary
Chapter 18 Bibliography
Chapter 19 Index
Chapter 20 About the Author

Editorial Reviews

This is a wonderful book...Yourke provides wonderful examples and makes distinctions I haven't seen anywhere else...Beginning and seasoned fiction writers alike can enter into this book...and emerge better writers.

Marshall J. Cook

.. .this manual violates the unwritten rules that seem to govern the production of too many such books: It is coherent, the examples given are easily understood, and the information imparted has application in the real world and work of writing.

Wisconsin Regional Writer

In this informative and entertaining how-to book, readers meet Georgina, a fictional author struggling to discover the characters of her novel.

The Writer

... an engaging exploration of the techniques of writing fiction. Yourke is serious about presenting writing techniques in a thorough and understandable way, which makes the book a valuable and thought-provoking resource for both the beginning writer and the veteran.

Annamarie Beckel

In 'Take Your Characters to Dinner,' Laurel Yourke doesn't just 'eat' with her fictional counterparts: she engages them in conversation, too, learning as she goes. As you will as well. In fact, this might be the most accessible book on writing that I've ever read, partly because Yourke empowers the aspiring author to embrace enthusiastically the 'eccentric' aspects of writing. 'Take Your Characters to Dinner' is simply a terrific and imaginative handbook on creating credible fiction.

Jeremiah Healy

In 'Take Your Characters to Dinner, ' Laurel Yourke doesn't just 'eat' with her fictional counterparts: she engages them in conversation, too, learning as she goes. As you will as well. In fact, this might be the most accessible book on writing that I've ever read, partly because Yourke empowers the aspiring author to embrace enthusiastically the 'eccentric' aspects of writing. 'Take Your Characters to Dinner' is simply a terrific and imaginative handbook on creating credible fiction.--Jeremiah Healy, President of the International Association of Crime Writers and author of Spiral and Turnabout

This is a wonderful book...Yourke provides wonderful examples and makes distinctions I haven't seen anywhere else...Beginning and seasoned fiction writers alike can enter into this book...and emerge better writers.--Marshall J. Cook, Publisher of Creativity Connection

... an engaging exploration of the techniques of writing fiction. Yourke is serious about presenting writing techniques in a thorough and understandable way, which makes the book a valuable and thought-provoking resource for both the beginning writer and the veteran.--Annamarie Beckel, author of All Gone Widdun

From the Publisher