Creating the Story: Guides for Writers

by Susan Wheeler, Susan Wheeler

Here, gathered in one book, are all the tips and tricks-of-the-trade that published writers have been passing along to new writers in classes and in individual conferences for years. Authors Rebecca Rule and Susan Wheeler have created a text that teaches students how to scrutinize published prose so they can teach themselves writing skills and techniques. "Creating the Story" is filled with short, no-nonsense, practical guides that writers of all ages can dip in and out of as they have need. The exercises that conclude each section not only help writers develop essential skills, but also yield ideas for stories. Readers will learn such practical skills as: writing scenes, summarizing and stretching time, using flashbacks, moving characters from one place in time to another, having characters think on the page, writing about love and violence, choosing the most effective tense to use, and much more.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Reference

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 6, 1993

About the author

Susan Wheeler is the creator of Victoria Rose and her compatriots of Holly Pond Hill, an exquisitely detailed watercolour world of gentle creatures.

From her earliest days growing up in New England, Susan Wheeler explored the outdoors to discover the secret places where animals lived. Here she first imagined tiny brick cottages and moss-covered tree houses inhabited by woodland creatures. With her careful brushwork -- some brushes only a single bristle wide -- Susan creates a nostalgic wonderland in incredible detail, one we would all love to enter if only we could find the magic door in the hedgerow! Inspired by the beauty she finds all around her, she believes that the purpose of art is to reflect the glory and goodness of God, the original Artist who painted the world with love and life. And Susan desires, most ardently, to pass this beauty along to everyone who pauses over her work.

Ms. Wheeler resides in Fredericksburg, Texas, where she lives with her husband, Mark, their four children, and their numerous pets and farm animals. In her free time, she runs her very own Bed & Breakfast named after her magical fantasy world.

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for a creative writing course. I enjoyed reading it, and I felt some of the exercises at the end of each chapter were helpful. It was kind of funny, though, how the authors always focused on negative things happening by asking the reader to initially write down a negative experience and/or memory and then expand upon it to turn it into a 'short story.' The authors came from the standpoint that nobody cares about a story in which 'nothing happens' in that there is 'no conflict' [which is probably true], but I had never previously come across this specific viewpoint to take something 'bad' or 'negative' and expand upon it to write a story.

It was a helpful book, and I enjoyed reading it.