Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Introducing creative writing
- Chapter 2 Creative writing in the world
- Chapter 3 Challenges of creative writing
- Chapter 4 Composition and creative writing
- Chapter 5 Processes of creative writing
- Chapter 6 The practice of fiction
- Chapter 7 Creative nonfiction
- Chapter 8 Writing poetry
- Chapter 9 Performing writing
- Chapter 10 Writing in the community and academy
- Illustrative bibliography
- Index
Chapter 6 - The practice of fiction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Introducing creative writing
- Chapter 2 Creative writing in the world
- Chapter 3 Challenges of creative writing
- Chapter 4 Composition and creative writing
- Chapter 5 Processes of creative writing
- Chapter 6 The practice of fiction
- Chapter 7 Creative nonfiction
- Chapter 8 Writing poetry
- Chapter 9 Performing writing
- Chapter 10 Writing in the community and academy
- Illustrative bibliography
- Index
Summary
You can't start with how people look and speak and behave and come to know how they feel. You must know exactly what's in their hearts and minds before they ever set visible foot on the stage. You must know all, then not tell it all, or not tell too much at once: simply the right thing at the right moment. And the same character would be written about entirely differently in a novel as opposed to a short story.
eudora welty (Plimpton, 1989: 166)Fiction writers know a lot about point of view. One thing they know is that, from the point of view of their publisher's accountant, commercial success has considerable edge over artistic truth. This is frustrating for authors who serve their art scrupulously but make little return on it. Unfortunately, loss-making writers give the impression that if you sell well, because you can ‘turn plot and character’, you are a lesser species. Many new writers find themselves at this crossroads of literary choice.
When you are starting to write, choose the road more travelled by. For simplicity, I use the term ‘story’ throughout this chapter to describe your writing, although I am aware you may write something that does not have a traditional form or structure. Any recommendations I make about wordcount are for guidance only, and are in no way prescriptive. Your job is to create ‘story’; that is, to make believable prose narrative and characters.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing , pp. 155 - 176Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007