Advanced Fiction: A Writer's Guide and Anthology

Description

Confident with the basics of your craft? Looking to take your writing to the next level? Advanced Fiction gives you the tools to hone your skills by thinking more deeply and systematically about deploying them on the page. Friendly and down-to-earth, Amy Weldon guides you through the realities of craft and process, combining a broad anthology of landmark stories with instruction on the more advanced aspects of fiction writing. Featuring interactive prompts, exercises and suggestions for further reading, this book guides you from larger philosophical issues to subtler technical ones, from topics as diverse as the intricate principles of storytelling to navigating artistic and political landscapes conscientiously and building a writing career. Beginning with a brief recap of the basics, the text goes on to examine: - The psychology of writing and revising - Practical methods for drafting and notebook-keeping - Taking personal and technical risks with ideas, images, and forms - Making responsible decisions about representing identities, bodies, and histories on the page - Complex craft concepts such as world-building, structure, time, and moving from short forms to novels Placing students' own work in conversation with established stories, the accompanying anthology selections range widely in culture, technique and time period, including authors of dystopia, historical fiction, satire, and fiction in translation as well as literary realists tackling themes like economic inequality, climate change, and identity. Thoughtful and essential, this book provides excellent guidance for students and budding authors on the complexities of fiction writing from the beginning of a writing project – short story or novel – to the end. Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Credits List Chapter 1: What Makes Advanced Fiction Writing “Advanced?” Student Craft Studio: Shannon Baker, “Habits” Writing-Mind, Ethics, and Curiosity Craft Studio: James Joyce (1882–1941), “Araby” (from Dubliners, 1914) Divining the Source: Why Do You Write? Chapter 2: Getting It Down: Self-Organizing, From Mind to Page Screens and the Artist’s Self Notebooks and Journals Typing, Scribbling, Editing, and Cutting Clotheslines, Envelopes, Files for Bits and Pieces Computers: My Basic System Chapter 3: Mystery, Conviction, Form, and Risk The Terrain of Risk, Part One: The Page The Terrain of Risk, Part Two: The Political World The Terrain of Risk, Part Three: Your Own World Student Craft Studio: Levi Bird, “On Stable Ground” Why Do We Write? Because Life Is Short Craft Studio: Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935), “The Yellow Wallpaper” (New England Magazine, 1892) Chapter 4: Writing in Color: Culture, Identity, and Art Starting the Conversation: Showing Up Writing across Difference: It’s for Everyone Writing the Other, or Writing in Color But Who Are You? Stereotypes: Beyond the Magical Negro, Tiny Tim, and the Gay Best Friend Writing across the Aisle: The Political Other Student Craft Studio: Ian Wreisner, “The New Chicago” Writing in Color: Starting the Process Putting It into Practice: Some Techniques for “Writing the Other” Craft Studio: Rebecca Makkai, Chapter 1 of The Great Believers (2018) Chapter 5: Invisible Engines: Purpose, Psychic Distance, and Point of View What’s This Really About? Drawing Your Story’s Heart Too Close? Too Far? Just Right: Psychic Distance Student Craft Studio: Andrew Tiede, “Till Death” Keeping Your Distance—by Accident Keeping Your Distance—on Purpose Who’s at the Controls: Point of View Intimacy, Verb Tense, and Point of View The Sound of the Second Person Atmospheres: Point of View as Subtext Verb Tenses and You: Shifts and Options Staging Significance: What’s at Stake? Moving through Time: Structure, Diagrams, and Subliminal Coordinates Craft Studio: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (b. 1977), “The American Embassy” (2003) Chapter 6: Building a World: For Your Readers and Yourself Step One: What Do You Know—or Not? Step Two: What Do You—And Your Readers—Need to Know? Step Three: Solve Your New Problems Student Craft Studio: Joel Murillo, Cracker Jack Step Four: Start the Info-Drip: Establish Figure and Ground Step Five: Build a Real Character—from the Inside The Room Where It Happens: Place and Its Pressures Student Craft Studio: Kari Myers, “Fields of Ash” Why Are You Hurting Me? Violence and Fiction Craft Studio: Angela Carter (1940–92), “The Tiger’s Bride” from The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (1979) Chapter 7: Trust the Process: Revising, Editing, and Writing at Length More Like This/This Stops Me Seeing a Character: Description as Process Teacher Craft Studio: Amy Weldon, “The Serpent” Information Order: When Do We Need to Know What? “I’m Bored Here”: What to Cut, and Why Beginnings and Endings: Establishing Authority The First Sentence: Packing and Unpacking Energy and Sound: Weaving a Writerly Voice Writing (and Revising) at Length: Moving from Stories to Novels A Workshop Story: Colson Whitehead, Novel Time, and My Real Main Character Pitfalls and Signposts: More Revision Problems Linked Story Collections Novellas: Not Too Long, Not Too Short . . . Is This Really a Novel? Little Arias: Handing Off the Mike in Novel Time Doing the Thing: Writing Novels in the Real World Chapter 8: Creative Writing and Your Future Thinking about the Future: Build Your Foundations Level One: Your Information Ecosystem Level Two: Writing-Related Jobs and Publication Credits on Campus Level Three: The Wider Writing World Student Career Studio: Andrew Chan (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Class of 2008): Web Editor at The Criterion Collection and Freelance Writer (The New Yorker and Others) Other Former Creative Writing Students Say . . . MFA Studio: Keith Lesmeister (MFA from Bennington Writing Seminars, 2014; Author, We Could’ve Been Happy Here; Editor, Cutleaf Journal (cutleafjournal​.c​om); Co-Director, Luther College Writers Festival; Instructor of English at Northeast Iowa Community “East of Ely” by Keith Lesmeister Thinking about Publication: From Stories to Collection Finding an Agent How Books Get Born Control What You Can: Or, Riding the Emotional Rollercoaster Dr. Weldon’s Fiction Prescriptions Anthology Section Notes Index