On Fiction Writing and Communicating a Good Story

 ABOUT WRITING: 7 Essays, 4 Letters and 5 Interviews by Samuel R. Delany, Wesleyan University Press: Middletown, Connecticut. 2005. ISBN: 13: 978-0-8195-6716-1


This collection on writing good fiction and communicating a good storyline should be on every writer's bookshelf. Delany takes the reader through the process of writing a good sentence to writing a good novel. Sometimes his theory of good writing may seem a bit harsh, not only to the wannabe writer, but also to an experienced writer who already has published. My first reaction to his harsh words were, "Why should I even write then?" But then Delany goes on to say "great writers" only come along once in a lifetime, but good writers (which makes up 40% of today's novels) can make a few bucks at the craft. he goes on to say there is an overabundance of truly mediocre writing out there. If your writing falls into the mediocre category, then get a real job, otherwise spend your life refining and re-editing your writing in hopes it becomes "good."

The Table of Contents is as follows:

Part 1: Seven Essays

Teaching/Writing
Thickening the plot
Characters
On Pure Storytelling
Of Doubts and Dreams
Reflections on the Beach Fire
Notes for the Intermediate and Advanced creative Writing Student

Part 2: Four Letters

Letter to P--
Letter to Q--
Letter to R--
Letter to S--

Part 3: Five Interviews

A Para doxa Interview: Experimental Writing/Texts & Questions
An American Literary History Interview: The Situation of American Writing Today
A Poetry Project Newsletter Interview: A Silent Interview
A Black Clock Interview
A Para doxa Interview: Inside & Outside the Canon

There is extensive notes, appendixes and other back matter stuff which puts this book at 419 pages.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Samuel Delany is an acclaimed novelist and critic and retired professor of English and creative writing at Temple University. he is the of numerous works of criticism, fiction, and science fiction, most recently (2004) the science fiction novel Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders. 


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