How to Write Fiction (and Think about It) by Graham, Robert (2007) Hardcover

by Robert Graham

This wide-ranging handbook is aimed at students who want to develop their fiction writing skills. Reading and reflective practice are foregrounded, and students are given constant recommendations of what they might read. Imaginative and accessible, this companionable handbook is clearly and innovatively structured around the processes and techniques of developing writing. It will allow students to acquire a portfolio of key skills and is ideal for anyone writing short stories or longer fiction.

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing

Hardcover

First published October 30, 2006

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Reviews

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read many years ago, one of the first books on writing I brought and read. Remember it being very independent, lots of activities. Felt like I was in a classroom, a complete course in one book

[Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first claim in this book that made me stop and think was ‘a good reason to write reflectively is that you will become more real to yourself as a writer’ – I’m not sure I know what that means, or understand what it offers. Is there an inauthentic or non-real way to be a writer? It seems a large statement but the claim in the book is that reflectiveness makes you more real ‘to yourself’ so perhaps it only means that you will have more faith in yourself. Who knows? By the end, I didn’t.

This is a book for beginning writers. The ‘longer’ fiction is 6,000 words and the writing bursts (ten minutes of writing to a set theme or statement) are somewhat basic: ‘I had been feeling like a million dollars’, ‘You can’t do that’, ‘Mcjob’ etc.

And Graham hangs out his own preferences – he’s a Hemingway fan (‘restrained’ ‘powerful emotions’) not a Guterson fan (‘effusive’) and of Henry James whom he admits is a ‘great novelist’ he says ‘I mean, for crying out loud, man, get a grip!’. Opinions are fine, but for writers at the start of their craft, hearing condemnation of certain writers and their styles can be crippling, and my feeling here was that if you took a class with Robert Graham, you’d better be at the Hemingway end of the spectrum!’

He also advises something that made me laugh out loud. ‘Take your writer’s notebook to a place where you do not normally go but to which you feel drawn, a horse fair … wrestling match … night club. Transcribe all the conversations that you can, as exactly as you can, using phonetic spelling where possible.’ To which I would add, ‘get thrown out by security people and have your notebook confiscated, or explain yourself to the local police when they arrive to ask why you are making notes in a crowded public place.’ This book was published in 2007 so there’s no excuse for suggesting to writers that they make themselves look suspicious, and cause fear and panic in public, by acting in exactly the way we know terrorist cells have done in the UK and USA.

There is good advice in here, but it’s somewhat buried under Graham’s own demotic style, and not much of it is new. I’m still trying to work out how his ideas make writers more real to themselves and although this book is aimed at the first year creative writing student, I think it could easily be a confidence-crusher for the fragile individual.

[Eamonn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very solid creative writing how-to book; best read after its partner The Road To Somewhere from the same team.

[Brett Buckley · Rating 3 out of 5]

For beginners, beginning.