Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, 7th Edition (original: 1982; edição: 2006)

I first read Burroway's book in its second edition. Now in its tenth edition, Writing Fiction is even better. I recommend it for the beginning or more mature writer. ( )

I first read Janet Burroway’s “Writing Fiction” in 1994 but have intended for some time to give it another reading. Finally, a ten-day cruise with plenty of unstructured time provided the perfect opportunity to make good on that intention. The time was well spent.

The subtitle, “ A Guide to Narrative Craft,” clearly identifies the focus and content of this work. In eleven chapters Burroway covers the writing process, the structure and form of stories, critical differences between showing and telling, characterization, atmosphere (harmony and conflict), point of view, comparison (simile and metaphor), theme, and revision. Each chapter begins with an overview of the basic principles Burroway wishes to impart. The chapters conclude with several pages of examples, excerpted from acclaimed novels and short stories, that illustrate the principles introduced in that chapter.

Burroway notes in the beginning that, “ Most of us don’t like to write at all; we like to have written” (p. 1). That observation, when modified, insightfully describes the process of reading Burroway’s book: It’s not enjoyable to read so much as worthwhile to have read. “Writing Fiction” provides a valuable review of critically important aspects of fiction writing for both novice and experienced writers. ( )

As a creative writing textbook, this is one of the best that I've come across. Having said that, it suffers from the same thing that I've come across in various writing books and classes: the idea that genre fiction and kidlit is someow inferior to literary fiction. One genre is not necessarily more sophisticated, more challenging to write, more worthy of our time. They're just different. And just once, I'd like a creative writing book that acknowledges that. ( )

A great overview of the fiction writing process, chock full of awesomely teachable example stories. I've been teaching out of this book for years. ( )

Rarely have I encountered a writing text so dense in wisdom, so practical, and so philosophically astute. I love how Burroway segues from specific suggestions to illustrative examples from literature to a unified, comprehensive and comprehendible theory of how fiction works.

"Although these are tricks that can be taught and learned, they partake of the essential nature of creativity, in which several elements are joined to produce not merely a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, but a whole that is something altogether other. At the conception of an embryo or a short story, there occurs a conjunction of two unlike things, whether cells or ideas, that have never been joined before. Around this conjunction other cells, other ideas accumulate in a deliberate pattern. That pattern is the unique personality of the creature, and if the pattern does not cohere, it miscarries or is stillborn." 312

Because I almost exclusively teach creative nonfiction, and because I write both fiction and creative nonfiction, I found myself looking through Burroway's observations about fiction to the fundamentals of good story-telling, and through craft to observations about our fundamental nature as created beings and as creators. Just an excellent text! ( )