Making Shapely Fiction

by Stern, Jerome

• ISBN13: 9780393321241
• ISBN10: 039332124X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-11-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

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. Jerome Stern maintains that learning to write spontaneously is the first step to writing well. 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.

Table of Contents

What This Book Does and Why	xiii
Acknowledgments	xvii
PART I THE SHAPES OF FICTION
Facade	5	(3)
Juggling	8	(4)
Iceberg	12	(3)
Last Lap	15	(3)
Trauma	18	(3)
Specimen	21	(4)
Gathering	25	(2)
A Day in the Life	27	(3)
Onion	30	(3)
Journey	33	(4)
Visitation	37	(3)
Aha!	40	(5)
Bear at the Door	45	(3)
Snapshot	48	(3)
Blue Moon	51	(4)
Explosion	55	(6)
PART II A CAUTIONARY INTERLUDE
Write What You Know	61	(4)
Don't Do This: A Short Guide to What Not to Do	65	(14)
PART III FROM ACCURACY TO ZIGZAG: AN ALPHABET FOR WRITERS OF FICTION
Accuracy	79	(2)
Advice	81	(1)
Allegory	82	(1)
Allusion	83	(1)
Ambiguity	84	(1)
Anti-hero	85	(3)
Archetype	88	(1)
Atmosphere	89	(1)
Avant-garde	90	(1)
Bathos	91	(1)
Beginnings	92	(2)
Catharsis	94	(2)
Character	96	(4)
Cliche	100	(4)
Cliff-hanger	104	(1)
Coincidence	105	(1)
Comedy	106	(2)
Convention	108	(1)
Crisis	109	(1)
Description	110	(3)
Dialect	113	(1)
Dialogue	114	(6)
Diction	120	(1)
Didacticism	121	(1)
Documents/Diaries/Letters	122	(2)
Endings	124	(3)
Epigram	127	(1)
Epilogue	127	(1)
Epiphany	127	(1)
Episode	128	(1)
Exposition	129	(2)
Fable	131	(1)
Fairy Tale	131	(1)
Farce	132	(1)
Flashback	133	(1)
Formula	134	(1)
Frame Story	135	(2)
Freytag's Pyramid	137	(1)
Genre	138	(1)
Grotesque	139	(1)
Hero	139	(1)
Imagery	140	(2)
Imagination	142	(1)
Immediacy	143	(2)
Interior Monologue	145	(2)
Intrigant	147	(1)
Irony	148	(2)
Legend	150	(1)
Local Color	150	(2)
Melodrama	152	(1)
Metafiction	152	(1)
Metaphor and Simile	153	(1)
Mise-en-scene	154	(1)
Motif	155	(1)
Myth	156	(1)
Names	157	(2)
Narrative	159	(1)
Narrator	160	(3)
Naturalism	163	(2)
Negative Positive Knowledge	165	(1)
Novel	166	(2)
Objective Correlative	168	(1)
Parable	169	(1)
Parody	169	(2)
Pathetic Fallacy	171	(1)
Picaro	171	(1)
Places and Place Names	172	(2)
Plot	174	(3)
Poetic Justice	177	(1)
Point of View	178	(14)
Position	192	(3)
Premise	195	(2)
Profanity / Obscenity	197	(1)
Psychic Distance	198	(1)
Reading	199	(1)
Realism	200	(3)
Red Herring	203	(1)
Resolution	204	(1)
Revision	204	(2)
Roman a Clef	206	(1)
Romance	207	(2)
Satire	209	(2)
Scene	211	(1)
Science Fiction	212	(1)
Sentimentality	212	(2)
Sex	214	(1)
Short Novel	215	(1)
Short Story	216	(2)
Showing and Telling	218	(2)
Stereotype	220	(1)
Stories within Stories	221	(1)
Stream of Consciousness	222	(1)
Structure	223	(1)
Style	224	(8)
Subtlety	232	(1)
Suspense	233	(1)
Suspension of Disbelief	234	(1)
Symbolism	235	(2)
Tension	237	(2)
Texture	239	(1)
Theme	240	(1)
Title	241	(2)
Tour de Force	243	(1)
Transitions	243	(3)
Trust Your Material	246	(1)
Voice	247	(2)
Workshops	249	(5)
Zigzag	254
PART IV READABLES: WHERE TO LEARN MORE