The Technique of Fiction Writing

The purpose of this book has been to shed a little light on the essential technical processes of the art of fiction; to state a general philosophy of fiction has not been my aim...

Interest--Secondary Function of Description--Distribution-- Story of Atmosphere--Effectiveness of Distributed Description --Description of Persons--Example--Analysis--Accuracy--...

A story is a fiction with a plot, as distinguished from a tale, which is a string of incidents that happened to happen to the characters. In the story the events are linked toge...

A story is the relation of what certain persons did in certain places and under certain conditions of existence, and in its broadest aspect the art of narration includes the des...

The Three Modes of Characterization--Dialogue--Action-- Description or Direct Statement--Aims of Characterization-- To Show the Nature--To Show the Man as a Physical Being-- Cha...

Novel and Romance--Romanticism and Realism--Techniques of Novel and Romance--Incoherence of Novel Relative to Short Story--Novel as Medium of Self-Expression--Interpolation of P...

Definition of Plot--Character and Plot--Dramatic Value of Plot--Complication--Interest--Plot as Problem--Three Basic Themes--Conflict Between Man and Nature--Conflict Between Ma...

After conceiving and elaborating his story, the writer must approach the task of expression. The two preliminary matters to be settled are the mode of narration and the manner o...

Atmosphere--as the term is used by the writer of fiction--is a most indefinite word; it may be well to preface discussion of what it stands for by a definition. And in defining...

When the writer of a story is not using narrative or description, he will be transcribing the speech of his characters. And in the matter of transcribing speech the writer of fi...

The writer who has discovered a good plot, so that his interest will not flag in writing, and who has fully developed the conception, so that he can have a single eye to executi...

Conception and Execution--Utility to Know Types--Novel and Romance--Short Story--The Three Types--Emphasis--Three Elements of Any Story--Story of Character--Character and Action...

Accessible as are the data of the fiction writer, the facts and possibilities of life, their very accessibility places him under strict necessity to sift the useful from the use...

Life is infinitely various, and the possibilities of the imagination are even more extensive; the writer of fiction has enough material at hand. His primary task, to pitch upon...