Review of Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer's Guide

[Kanchan Bhil]

[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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Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer's Guide by William H. Coles is a perfect book for fiction writers. The author has divided the book into two parts, comprising multiple chapters. Part one is The Literary Story in Fiction, and part two is Creating a Literary Fictional Story. This book starts with the basics of writing a fiction story. The author has written about imagination, structure, and theme in the initial chapters. The author describes the magnitude of the significance of characterization and dramatic plot in a fictional story.

Frequently, readers are not satisfied with the character development presented in fictional novels. The importance of character development, the complexity, and the significance of characters are portrayed in the book. The author has depicted that the character can never replace the plot and the setting of the novel. But it directly relates to these aspects of a fiction novel. Sometimes, in fiction novels, there is a discrepancy in a character's action and personality. This happens because of the lack of depth of the characters in the creator’s mind. The author has emphasized the fact that however small a role a character plays in the novel, the creator should construct in-depth characters in their mind to justify their actions.

I did not see eye to eye with the author on one point. The author has written in the book that brilliant authors like Austen, Homer, Forester, and many more wrote only to entertain readers. This point should be his observation or a theory but is stated as a fact in the book.

I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. Remarkable illustrations of an excellent fictional story and an average fictional story are also included in the book for comparison. This inclusion made the book enjoyable, along with being educative.

I recommend this book to aspiring fiction writers. This book can be tremendously helpful in understanding the most trivial details of writing a fiction novel. Moreover, I recommend this book to reviewers as well. Sometimes, I couldn’t quite place my finger on what was wrong with some of the fictional novels that I read. Reading this book provided me with an understanding of where an author might make mistakes in writing the book.

I noted some grammatical and spelling errors. The book requires another round of editing to be perfect. The errors were few, and they did not hinder my reading experience.

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

William H. Coles is a brilliant modern author and his advice would be simply priceless. And how great that you mentioned the importance of this book for reviewers! Thank you so much for this amazing and informative review!

[Kanchan Bhil]

William H. Coles is a brilliant modern author and his advice would be simply priceless. And how great that you mentioned the importance of this book for reviewers! Thank you so much for this amazing and informative review!

Thank you for your kind words!

[Ruchi Raina]

This sounds like a great book for budding authors. The author has explained all the important factors that make for a good fictional novel. It seems very helpful. Thanks for the great review.

[Dimi1]

I think it's a well-documented book on writing an excellent fictional story. It's great that an average fictional story is also included for comparison in order to see the differences. Great review!

[Kanchan Bhil]

I think it's a well-documented book on writing an excellent fictional story. It's great that an average fictional story is also included for comparison in order to see the differences. Great review!

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