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Words Made Flesh: The Craft of Fiction
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 26, 2024
One of the most interesting (maybe even the most interesting) books about writing I've ever read. This is essentially six long essays covering character, emotion, description, plot, endings, and revision. Not uncommon topics by any stretch, but the approach to each differs from a lot of common writing advice.
Another reviewer said the later chapters felt too academic, but that wasn't the case for me. It's impossible to say how much I would have gotten out of them when I was a new writer, though.
Short summaries of the topics:
Character - He argues that contrary to the advice that writers should know everything possible about each character, they should instead leave some mystery, mirroring how mystery remains even for the people they know best.
Emotion - While abstractions can undermine the emotion the writer hopes to convey, they can be used effectively. He talks about how body language is under-utilized, with writers (I'm guilty of this) tending to use the same few gestures over and over when there's a whole world of gestures available.
Description - This part looks at description through the lens of various schools of art (realism, impressionism, expressionism, post-impressionism, and cubism).
Plot - Looks at alternatives to the popular plot structure of causally linked events that grow more complicated and intense until coming to a climax and getting resolved. This list may not make much sense without description, but the alternate plots discussed include episodic, juxtapositional (thematic and symbolic), argumentative, expository, associative, lyrical, and hybrid.
Endings - This one looks at twelve non-epiphany styles of ending stories used by Chekhov.
Revision - Lots of good advice here. What really struck me, though, was the idea that revision should still feel like play. Writing shouldn't suddenly become unpleasant work just because the first draft is finished. I used to greatly prefer writing first drafts over revision because revision felt like work, but somehow reading this allowed me to reframe it and now I'm enjoying revision as well.
Another reviewer said the later chapters felt too academic, but that wasn't the case for me. It's impossible to say how much I would have gotten out of them when I was a new writer, though.
Short summaries of the topics:
Character - He argues that contrary to the advice that writers should know everything possible about each character, they should instead leave some mystery, mirroring how mystery remains even for the people they know best.
Emotion - While abstractions can undermine the emotion the writer hopes to convey, they can be used effectively. He talks about how body language is under-utilized, with writers (I'm guilty of this) tending to use the same few gestures over and over when there's a whole world of gestures available.
Description - This part looks at description through the lens of various schools of art (realism, impressionism, expressionism, post-impressionism, and cubism).
Plot - Looks at alternatives to the popular plot structure of causally linked events that grow more complicated and intense until coming to a climax and getting resolved. This list may not make much sense without description, but the alternate plots discussed include episodic, juxtapositional (thematic and symbolic), argumentative, expository, associative, lyrical, and hybrid.
Endings - This one looks at twelve non-epiphany styles of ending stories used by Chekhov.
Revision - Lots of good advice here. What really struck me, though, was the idea that revision should still feel like play. Writing shouldn't suddenly become unpleasant work just because the first draft is finished. I used to greatly prefer writing first drafts over revision because revision felt like work, but somehow reading this allowed me to reframe it and now I'm enjoying revision as well.
November 11, 2024
This might go down as the most underlined, starred, commented (Yesss!!!), and hearted book on my writing shelf. David Jauss always seems to articulate what my instincts tell me (let's talk about endings), but I can't quite explain, even to myself. He supports his advice with insights and evidence from many successful authors. I'll be returning to this book frequently.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews