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eowyns_helmet's review against another edition
5.0
There are some very good pieces in this book -- Steve Almond's essay on writing sex scenes is excellent (it's not about the sex, but character, of course). The brief piece on the revisions behind [b:The Great Gatsby|4671|The Great Gatsby|F. Scott Fitzgerald|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361191055s/4671.jpg|245494] was fascinating -- and comforting. Even Fitzgerald didn't get it the first time. He took the editorial comments made by Maxwell Perkins very seriously and generously, looking for the meaning in them rather than resisting them.
Some nuggets:
In "Making a Scene," Anna Keesey quotes Marilyn Robinson saying, "the reader is patient, ... is you're showing something that is of significance and if your prose is good and if there are no missteps or squanderings of the reader's attention, then the reader will follow you anywhere."
Well, that's a lot of IFs! But I get it...
Chris Offutt writes about the difference between "polishing" and revising -- and I am guilty, guilty, guilty of the former and not so hot at the latter... I will hone a sentence until it absolutely gleams, not seeing the weakness all around it. This piece is the best in the book. "Revising requires a cruel and ruthless objectivity with which you essentially perform surgery on yourself without anesthesia" (207).
For Offutt, the first draft is pure vulnerability, which (hopefully) translates into what he calls "reader empathy." And that is not the space to be in to revise. The transition between the two is time -- letting that first draft sit. "Try to see what the story is, rather than what you are trying to force it into. If you've done that first draft successfully, you've tapped into your intuition, your impulses, your unconscious, your problems of the day, whatever emotional state you are in... [for revision] you need to forget what it is you've tried to do, look at the story, see what it has become, and begin to attempt to fix it, to revise it, to improve it" (209).
Offutt always cuts off the opening and closing of the first draft, since the story is usually starting later and ending sooner. He also keeps every draft separate (!) so that he can go back and see what he did (I would find this completely impossible). He is fearless -- switching scenes, combining characters, hatcheting exposition. But the polishing -- repeated words, punctuation etc. -- is the last thing to be done...
Another good quote. "Adverbs are the weakest words; verbs are the strongest. Many, many times I've found that I have the wrong verb so I'm attempting to cheat and modify the wrong verb by using an adverb" (212). Wiush it was shorter so I could put it on a tshirt.
Peter Rock also had a good quote from Julio Cortazar, quoting Hector Quiroga: "Tell the story as if it were only of interest to the small circle of your characters, of which you may be one. There is no other way to put life into the story."
In this exploration of show vs. tell, Rock goes on to say this. "Telling in stories often attempts to simplify, to clarify, but when it's really working, telling complicates and adds dimension to the experience of the story. It interprets situations and characters, and it invites us to do the same. It involves us" (239).
Some nuggets:
In "Making a Scene," Anna Keesey quotes Marilyn Robinson saying, "the reader is patient, ... is you're showing something that is of significance and if your prose is good and if there are no missteps or squanderings of the reader's attention, then the reader will follow you anywhere."
Well, that's a lot of IFs! But I get it...
Chris Offutt writes about the difference between "polishing" and revising -- and I am guilty, guilty, guilty of the former and not so hot at the latter... I will hone a sentence until it absolutely gleams, not seeing the weakness all around it. This piece is the best in the book. "Revising requires a cruel and ruthless objectivity with which you essentially perform surgery on yourself without anesthesia" (207).
For Offutt, the first draft is pure vulnerability, which (hopefully) translates into what he calls "reader empathy." And that is not the space to be in to revise. The transition between the two is time -- letting that first draft sit. "Try to see what the story is, rather than what you are trying to force it into. If you've done that first draft successfully, you've tapped into your intuition, your impulses, your unconscious, your problems of the day, whatever emotional state you are in... [for revision] you need to forget what it is you've tried to do, look at the story, see what it has become, and begin to attempt to fix it, to revise it, to improve it" (209).
Offutt always cuts off the opening and closing of the first draft, since the story is usually starting later and ending sooner. He also keeps every draft separate (!) so that he can go back and see what he did (I would find this completely impossible). He is fearless -- switching scenes, combining characters, hatcheting exposition. But the polishing -- repeated words, punctuation etc. -- is the last thing to be done...
Another good quote. "Adverbs are the weakest words; verbs are the strongest. Many, many times I've found that I have the wrong verb so I'm attempting to cheat and modify the wrong verb by using an adverb" (212). Wiush it was shorter so I could put it on a tshirt.
Peter Rock also had a good quote from Julio Cortazar, quoting Hector Quiroga: "Tell the story as if it were only of interest to the small circle of your characters, of which you may be one. There is no other way to put life into the story."
In this exploration of show vs. tell, Rock goes on to say this. "Telling in stories often attempts to simplify, to clarify, but when it's really working, telling complicates and adds dimension to the experience of the story. It interprets situations and characters, and it invites us to do the same. It involves us" (239).
bookishwendy's review against another edition
4.0
This is a great little collection of essays by some notable contributors. I have to admit that my favorite chapter here was Steve Almond's hilarious little gem about the awkwardness--and near impossibility--of writing about sex ("Hard up for a Hard-On", which, coincidentally, includes both lovely and nauseating examples. Consider yourself warned). Other notable chapters that I found particularly helpful include "Performing Surgery without Anesthetic" by Chris Offutt on revisions, "Making a Scene" by Anne Keesey, "Generating Fiction from History" by Jim Shepherd, and even (surprisingly?) "Shakespeare for Writers" by Margot Livesy. I found a few chapters too esoteric and/or vague, such as "The Mercurial Worlds of the Mind" about writing imaginary worlds in which the author's enthusiastically bizarre style I found almost impossible to follow. Bottom line, I'd recommend this to any student of creative writing. Good essay fodder here, to be sure!
marissalevien's review against another edition
5.0
As a writing teacher, this book has been insanely useful for class material. Sometimes craft essays can be dry, the writers sourced in this book provide advice and analysis that's both smart and entertaining.
quinlpa's review against another edition
4.0
This was a really solid anthology, I'll definitely be coming back to re-read a good number of these essays.
sawyerbell's review against another edition
3.0
Useful and insightful advice. Avoids the unworkable cookie cutter approach of most writer's guides.
julieannholland's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
4.0
This is a nice and fun set of essays regarding writing, specifically short fiction or flash fiction writing. I enjoyed all of the ideas from each author as to what makes a story to them, and I genuinely never got bored, which is astonishing since typically with books that are another person's opinions of what makes a good story usually bore me. I would say that this collection is very approachable and I really did like it.
emma_burcart's review against another edition
5.0
There are some really helpful craft essays in here, a few I marked up and will likely revisit again.
curiousreader's review
3.0
This collection of essays focus on writing but have rather different approaches - some specifically talk about poetry, about Shakespeare, about fairytales and about specific books like The Great Gatsby. Others have more general ideas, theories and advice that could be applied to a wide variety of people and stories I think. I found some of the essays too heavy in quotes and examples - which really took away from my personal connection to what exactly was being said, instead I kept being annoyed at being thrown into so many different stories in one short essay. It's one thing to illustrate a point with a quote - which many did, but in my opinion a few of these essays could've lost some of the quotes to become clearer. "Place" by Dorothy Allison, "When to keep it simple" by Rick Bass, "Making a Scene" by Anna Keesey, "Performing surgery without anaesthesia" by Chris Offut, and "(Mis) Adventures in Poetry" by D. A Powell I found to be very interesting and useful in terms of writing. My favourite essay may have been "Character motivation" by Aimee Bender which I didn't only find useful in terms of writing but also particularly interesting from a readers point of view. All of the essays mentioned I found to be thought provoking in some way or other, and would recommend to anyone wanting to get some pointers for writing - not just writing fiction, some of these I thought could be applied to school related writing as well.
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