Review of Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer's Guide
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Maja Anuszewska
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Review of Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer's Guide
[Following is a volunteer review of "Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer's Guide" by William H. Coles.]
Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer’s Guide by William H. Coles is a comprehensive guidebook on how to write high-quality, fictional stories. The book is divided into two main parts. The first segment contains theoretical knowledge about literature. The author explains both simple and more complex terms like point of view, dialogue, and narration. He introduces them in order to familiarize readers with the proper definitions and features of the terms. In the second part of the book, the author focuses on describing the writing process of a story. He introduces the fundamental steps of creating a piece of fiction and provides guidelines for writers. The author also brings up important topics of readers’ expectations and reasons for writing a story.
The guide was very well-structured. It was divided into two main parts that focused on familiarizing the reader with literary terms and explaining the writing process. The author started the book by describing the absolute basics of writing fiction and progressively moved on to more difficult topics. That made the guide suitable for both beginners as well as more advanced writers. Moreover, chapters in the book were further divided into subtopics with separate headings. That led to the content being presented in a very transparent way, and it was easy to find and go back to certain topics. In addition to this, practically every chapter ended with a summary or final thoughts, which gave a general overview of the specific topics.
I also liked how clear and concise the guide was. Every new topic was initially introduced by the author through either a short description or dictionary definitions. That allowed the reader to learn standardized definitions of certain words and avoid any misunderstandings. After the general introduction, the author provided an in-depth analysis of different parts of a fictional story. The topics were illustrated with examples from well-known books and movies. The reader could also easily learn how to use the knowledge in practice. The author devoted a whole section to explaining how to start writing a story and continue until the ending. He provided us with ideas on how to improve and avoid common mistakes. All the pieces of advice were conveyed in an easy to grasp way, with plenty of examples.
The only thing that could be criticised about the book was the editing. In several instances, I noticed random, blank pages appearing before new chapters. It was a minor inconvenience, but the guide would benefit from having these pages deleted.
The book is a very good guide to writing fictional stories. It has a clear structure and explains all the topics in an in-depth way. The only thing that could be changed are the random, blank pages. However, the guide is extremely well-written, and these blank pages don’t really detract from the reading experience. Taking everything into account, I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars.
I would definitely recommend this guide to everybody interested in learning how to write. The book caters to both novice writers as well as people who already have some experience. Every writer will be able to learn something new and useful. Overall, the book is an excellent guide full of helpful advice.
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Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer's Guide
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords
Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer’s Guide by William H. Coles is a comprehensive guidebook on how to write high-quality, fictional stories. The book is divided into two main parts. The first segment contains theoretical knowledge about literature. The author explains both simple and more complex terms like point of view, dialogue, and narration. He introduces them in order to familiarize readers with the proper definitions and features of the terms. In the second part of the book, the author focuses on describing the writing process of a story. He introduces the fundamental steps of creating a piece of fiction and provides guidelines for writers. The author also brings up important topics of readers’ expectations and reasons for writing a story.
The guide was very well-structured. It was divided into two main parts that focused on familiarizing the reader with literary terms and explaining the writing process. The author started the book by describing the absolute basics of writing fiction and progressively moved on to more difficult topics. That made the guide suitable for both beginners as well as more advanced writers. Moreover, chapters in the book were further divided into subtopics with separate headings. That led to the content being presented in a very transparent way, and it was easy to find and go back to certain topics. In addition to this, practically every chapter ended with a summary or final thoughts, which gave a general overview of the specific topics.
I also liked how clear and concise the guide was. Every new topic was initially introduced by the author through either a short description or dictionary definitions. That allowed the reader to learn standardized definitions of certain words and avoid any misunderstandings. After the general introduction, the author provided an in-depth analysis of different parts of a fictional story. The topics were illustrated with examples from well-known books and movies. The reader could also easily learn how to use the knowledge in practice. The author devoted a whole section to explaining how to start writing a story and continue until the ending. He provided us with ideas on how to improve and avoid common mistakes. All the pieces of advice were conveyed in an easy to grasp way, with plenty of examples.
The only thing that could be criticised about the book was the editing. In several instances, I noticed random, blank pages appearing before new chapters. It was a minor inconvenience, but the guide would benefit from having these pages deleted.
The book is a very good guide to writing fictional stories. It has a clear structure and explains all the topics in an in-depth way. The only thing that could be changed are the random, blank pages. However, the guide is extremely well-written, and these blank pages don’t really detract from the reading experience. Taking everything into account, I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars.
I would definitely recommend this guide to everybody interested in learning how to write. The book caters to both novice writers as well as people who already have some experience. Every writer will be able to learn something new and useful. Overall, the book is an excellent guide full of helpful advice.
******
Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer's Guide
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords
Latest Review: Wild World by Peter S. Rush
