Elska Bee reviewed Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition by Janet Burroway
Review of 'Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition' on 'Goodreads'
I have mixed feelings about this one. While I think there's definitely useful stuff in here, it also has it's problems.
First off don't read this book if "overwriting" bothers you. Not in terms of tips, but in the way this actual book is written. The writing style really put me sleep, it's just a bit over complicated.
Second it's very skimmable, but that's a strength. It has A LOT of example paragraphs, but they're mostly from literary fiction and I personally didn't need them so it was easy to skip over them. Scan for the parts that seem relevant to you, because this book is for a certain audience and it may not be you.
That leads me to: this is for literary fiction writers. If you're the kind of person who idolises James Joyce and Hemingway, then you might vibe with this book a bit more than I …
I have mixed feelings about this one. While I think there's definitely useful stuff in here, it also has it's problems.
First off don't read this book if "overwriting" bothers you. Not in terms of tips, but in the way this actual book is written. The writing style really put me sleep, it's just a bit over complicated.
Second it's very skimmable, but that's a strength. It has A LOT of example paragraphs, but they're mostly from literary fiction and I personally didn't need them so it was easy to skip over them. Scan for the parts that seem relevant to you, because this book is for a certain audience and it may not be you.
That leads me to: this is for literary fiction writers. If you're the kind of person who idolises James Joyce and Hemingway, then you might vibe with this book a bit more than I did. It was really telling when the author mentioned that YA has always been a thing since before the label existed... and then listed examples such as Alice in Wonderland and Chronicles of Narnia... hmm
The chapters are broken into pretty respectable sections, so depending on who you are you'll find different chapters more useful, but I must warn you that the book is very short so you more get an overview than any in-depth information or advice. Personally, I skimmed the first and last chapter which where about getting started and revision respectively, just because they were less relevant.
The weakest chapter was plot which was very disappointing. There's a lot of interesting stuff to say about plot and a lot of different structures and models that COULD have been discussed or at least mentioned. Instead the majority of the chapter is dedicated to some metaphor about how conflict in books are wars with battles and two sides and blah blah. It really lost me and I didn't find it helpful at all. There are amazing examples of conflict and how it drives story in the rest of the book, but the plot section just went off the rails.
There's plenty of recommended readings, writing prompts, and activities if you're into that kind of thing. I'm not, but I can see why they would be helpful.
Overall, I did take away some useful stuff from this book, but it shouldn't be your one stop shop for writing advice.