Review by Doziesixtus -- Creating Literary Stories: A Fi...

[Doziesixtus]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer's Guide" by William H. Coles.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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It’s one thing to have a story to share, it’s another to know how to tell the story, through writing in a creative way, to captivate the attention of your readers. I have always been eager to know the things crucial to writing an interesting story. Most books I read had little to nothing to say about introducing creativity to a story, more emphasis was laid on grammar. Having read Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer’s Guide, I am convinced I have found the holy grail to creative writing for better reader engagement.

William H. Coles’ Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer’s Guide is a well thought out book probing the different writing styles used by literary fiction writers. The book dissects, into fragments, the major components in writing a piece with full engagement from the reader. The author indicated how the different components aid in advancing the book; characterization, how the character advances the plot, meaning and purpose, drama, et cetera. Samples of a more creative writing approach were presented to compare to the glib approach to how most writers structure their works. William H. Coles drew a clear line between writing imaginative stories and writing from experiences like in memoirs, autobiographies, history, et cetera.

I admire the author’s effort in making a deep scrutiny on different literary works, he was able materialize the chapters of the book, making the reader have a visual representation of its contents. The book goes beyond explaining the superficial context of a paragraph, explaining how the structure of the paragraph affects the kind of interpretation the reader gets. One of the examples used was how the character of Little Red Riding Hood advanced the plot of the book, how the reader gets emotionally attached to the naivety of little Red. The author showed the different emotional attachment obtained by altering the structure of Little Red Riding Hood story. This and some other examples showed the fallibility of some literary fiction writers and how these errors could be mitigated.

The general concept of the book is great; it has some priceless advice for people delving into story writing. The contents of the book would be quite beneficial to book reviewers, to know what to look out for in reviewing a story and pinpoint the styles used by writers. I encountered few spelling errors and no grammatical error. Another round of proofreading would clear the errors.

The book couldn’t have been written any better, the writings were friendly, ideas were succinctly presented without much ambiguity in choice of words. I rate the book four out of four stars. I highly recommend the book to all story writers, book reviewers and people attempting to have a better grasp of literary works. I have benefited from the ideas shared in the book and hope to write better stories than before.

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Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer's Guide
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[bookreviewmi1111]

Thanks for an interesting review. I read this book a while ago, and I think it is really useful for fresh writters.