How fiction works
Provides a somewhat academic approach to a discussion of the main elements of fiction using examples (good and bad) from literature.
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3recommend
7mentions
4people
2008–2024years
71% recommend14% neutral14% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- You can do it! https://writeofpassage.com/
In books about writing, I like:
How Fiction Works
Reading Like a Writer
Writing With Style
There are many others of course. Perhaps the most important part is finding an editor. (I wound up marrying one, which is not uncommon.) I've seen recs for Sasha Chapin: https://www.sashachapin.com/
- Yes, this definitely counts as criticism! I think the best critics are the ones who can tell you specifically how and why something is great. As an example, James Wood's book "How Fiction Works" is basically a compendium of paragraphs and sentences Wood thinks are wonderful, which he cracks open to inspect and explain. It's really impressive whenever a critic can pull this off; I often struggle to get beyond "OMG [THING X] IS GREAT."
- This is a very beautiful and logical interface, but it's the wrong approach, because it's a very developer-centric approach to writing.
The problem with writing is you can't loop through it and find whether each sentence passes or throws an exception. A written work needs to be evaluated as a cohesive whole. That's what "bold and clear" writing means to me: a written piece of work that stands on its own and says what it means.
Computers are not smart enough yet to understand why "Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta." is a complete, perfect paragraph. It doesn't have a verb and it looks like Lola is misspelled multiple times, so it doesn't pass the subset of grammar rules set up in the backend. But the meaning, the essence of the paragraph is clear.
Writing may someday be able to be governed by algorithms, but not yet. I ran the second paragraph of David Copperfield through Hemingway [1], and it gave me too many adverbs, a misspelling of the British neighbourhood, and the use of passive voice. This is understandable, as Charles Dickens was a verbose writer who got paid by the word. And yet, it doesn't detract from the fact that he is one of the most-loved in the English cannon.
We can't measure good literature yet, because there is no straightforward formula, and although this is an interesting attempt, it can't teach good writing better than a human.
For a better, and still technical, approach to understanding how and why sentences and paragraphs work with us or against us, it's better to read Strunk and White, and even better to read "How Fiction Works" by James Wood.
If there is a way to incorporate at least those two books into conditional statements, I would be excited to see it.
- My writing is bad. Do you have any recommendations for how I could improve?
Better question: Would you mind describing what your own path was like going from "I'm a bad writer" to "Hey, I'm fairly good"?
Read a lot, write a lot, and get an editor. Here are more specifics: https://jseliger.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/the-very-very-begi....
Here's something specific: I'd like to get better at using metaphor
Read Metaphors We Live By and How Fiction Works.
- This reminds me of a post I wrote, "So you wanna be a writer: What Anthony Bourdain can tell you even when he’s not talking about writing": http://jseliger.com/2010/09/20/so-you-wanna-be-a-writer-what... . That's geared toward people who want to be professional writers, though.
I would emphasize Tenner's "read a lot" and "write a lot" parts. You should edit your own work, of course, but often you don't have the skills to do so incredibly effectively until you've built up a lot of knowledge about what works and what doesn't, which you won't be able to do until you've read a lot and written a lot.
Also, if you read one or two books about writing, you'll be much better off. A handful I consult regularly: 1) Write Right! (a simple, ~90 page book on grammar and rules that will see you through 99% of situations); 2) How Fiction Works, by James Wood (which is mostly about noticing what you read); 3) On Writing Well by William Zissner (a perennial recommendation); 4) On Writing by Steven King (which is so fun to read that it's hard _not_ to recommend).
- James Woods is among my least favorite writers. His previous book "How Fiction Works" was condescending and pretentious. This essay collection is no different.
