A roll-up-your-sleeves approach to writing fiction by one of today's best writers. With clarity, verve, and the sure instincts of a good teacher, Madison Smartt Bell illuminates the process of narrative design. In essays and analyses of twelve stories by established writers and students, Bell emphasizes the primary importance of form as the backdrop against which all other elements of a story must work. Discussions of the unconscious mind and creativity reinforce other essentials of good writing. Madison Smartt
Rare it is to find an examination of the workings of the short story so diligent and loving as Madison Smartt Bell's in Narrative Design. According to Bell--a creative writing instructor and very fine fiction writer--"form or structure ... is of first and final importance to any work of fiction." Here, Bell scrutinizes the underlying architecture of 12 short stories--some by his students, others by the likes of Mary Gaitskill and William T. Vollmann. Bell is unstoppable, his discussion of the stories usually longer than the stories themselves. Every structural twist and turn is inspected, so that by tale's end we're reminded of those poor little frogs pinned for sixth-grade dissection, no bone left unturned. Bell's anatomy lessons are as eye opening as those of our youth (and a lot less gruesome), though I do recommend reading each story first in its entirety, only then backtracking for the bone by bone.
Were it not for Bell's insights regarding the fiction writer's juggling of craft and inspiration, a short-story writer might come away from this book completely paralyzed. Don't worry. Bell is well aware that the way in which a story comes into being is often as much of a mystery to the writer as to the reader. Though the stories included all demonstrate a strong structural logic, their writers, says Bell, "didn't plan it all. Probably could not have done so. At least not deliberately--not consciously." Instead, he writes, "Within the mind of every imaginative writer ... the faculty of conscious craftsmanship engages with the inexplicable choices and decisions of the unconscious mind. One of the writer's projects is always to try, somehow, to turn this engagement into less of a battle, more of a partnership." --Jane Steinberg
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
No insight:
This book is a collection of stories accompanied by a description of each one according to a set structure; backstory, present action, character,tone, dialogue, imagery and description, time management and design. He follows this with Notes, comments on the story. The idea of the book was interesting however, none of the entries taught me anything. He basically states the obvious. I found no insight here.
A USEFUL fiction workshop in the palm of your hands.:
Finally! A book which not only gets to the heart of the"workshop" debate but also provides meaningful insights onwhat makes fiction work. On my shelf, this book has replaced Gardner's Art of Fiction as my bible for guidance in fiction writing.
Woodsheddin' with the T.Monk of American lit ...:
One of the country's best young authors provides an excellent textbook treatment of architectural matters lying at the heart of a writer's most basic concerns. Mr. Bell examines the invisible structures that underlie fiction.
While emphasizing that "form is of first and final importance to any work ..." he also pays pleasurable attention to the writer's need for spontaneity, attending to the peculiar struggle battling in the mind of a writer that requires constant shifting between the right and... more info
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