The art of writing stories in literary fiction is a vast topic not easily captured in a single book. And there are numerous books on the craft of writing that, while important, miss the concepts of most value to the literary fiction author.
Below are books, many out-of-print but often seen in used bookstores or on the Internet, that have been graded (with editor comments included) on the value for the literary fiction storyteller. Other authors’ reviews are also included.
What books have you found useful and why? Write a review in the comments section.
Narrative
H. Porter Abott
ISBN 0 521 65969 8
An in-depth academic analysis about narrative that is full of valuable insights for the fiction writer, but is not a craft book.
Poetics
Aristotle
ISBN 0-486-29577-X
Where it all began. Always relevant, although a little sexist for modern times. A must for every author’s reading.
Burning Down the House
Charles Baxter
ISBN 1-55597-270-5
Nine essays on Fiction. Truth from the publisher “. . . handbook of good sense and sound taste in fiction.
” At least four of these essays will give thought-provoking insight into mysteries of fiction.
Narrative Design: A Writer’s Guide To Structure
Madison Smart Bell
ISBN 0-393-97123-6
Analyses of a number of stories that go awry for the aspiring writer in a pedantic, pseudoacademic way. A student’s time better spent elsewhere.
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Writing the Novel
Lawrence Block
ISBN 0-89879-208-8
Thoughts more suited to the writer of commercial fiction than writers struggling to create stories as art forms.
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The Rhetoric of Fiction
Wayne C. Booth
ISBN 0-226-06558-8
Almost without argument, the most in depth and illuminating text on fiction writing. This book is essential to the library of any serious author of fiction.
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The Rhetoric of Irony
Wayne C. Booth
ISBN 0-226-06553-7
A difficult read but one of the few places writers can think about irony as it relates to their fiction.
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Picture and Conversations
Elizabeth Bowen
ISBN 0 7139 0990 0
This book should be purchased for the short section, “Notes on Writing the Novel.” Slightly disjointed in presentation but incredible in its worth to a writer.
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Writing a Novel
John Braine
ISBN 0-07-007112-8
Fatherly advice, loosely presented, about novel writing.
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Understanding Fiction
Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren
ISBN0-13-936690-3
Well chosen stories with commentary that makes sense. A classic.
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Syntax: A Linguistic Introduction To Sentence Structure
Keith Brown and Jim Miller
ISBN 0-415-08421-0
A linguistic academic text never to be read cover to cover but with some valuable ideas that a writer can use to improve.
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Strategies of Drama: The Experience of Form
Oscar Lee Brownstein
ISBN 0-313-27754-0
Although not targeted for prose writers, this work presents thoughts on dramatic structure that would make every disgruntled reader of contemporary fiction wish it was required reading before writing stories for publication. Expensive but worth the investment.
Analytical Sourcebook of Concepts in Dramatic Theory
Oscar Lee Brownstein and Darlene M. Daubert
ISBN 0-313-21309-7
Like bread and water, an essential resource for understanding elements of drama useful for the serious writer of stories.
Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft
Janet Burroway
ISBN 0-321-11795-6
This has many editions and is consider essential by many writers. There are many stories, and there is a dependency on the stories for illustration of points. Using stories to illustrate points can be unclear, and may not be efficient for some. Also there is emphasis on journal keeping, freewriting, and clustering. These gimmicks for writers can detract from the real joy of dramatic structure in a story. Although not a widespread opinion, there are many other more useful texts.
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The Masks of God: Creative Mythology
Joseph Campbell
ISBN 0 14 01.9440 1
This book, and the others by Campbell, has valuable ideas about humanity and mythology that are endlessly useful to fiction writers. Not about craft. About stories. And you’ll get a sense of how stories shape our world.
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Writing Popular Fiction
Robyn Carr
ISBN 0-89879-515-X
A book of tips for genre writers. Not worthy of purchase by someone eager to learn literary writing. However, it provides interesting comparison into the differences between genre and literary writing.
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American Short Story Masterpieces
Raymond Carver and Tom Jenks (Eds)
ISBN 0-440-20423-2
Good source of stories from the last half of the twentieth century.
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The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction
R.V. Cassill
ISBN 0-393-96663-1
A perfect source for a variety of stories old and new.
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Creating Fiction
Julie Checkoway (Ed)
ISBN 1-884910-40-8
Essays by a number of contemporary authors on thinking about writing. Something of value for almost everyone writing literary fiction stories.
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The Shapes of Prose
Charles M. Cobb
ISBN 0-03-011326-1
A well organized and useful college text that provides examples and content on elements of fiction writing.
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Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer’s Guide
William H. Coles
ISBN 0996190368
An essential guide for every writer of fiction. LEARN: Character, Narration, Structure, Dialogue, Point of View, Writing in Scene, Drama (Conflict-Action-Resolution), Humor, Revision.
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Literary Story as an Art Form: A Textbook for Writers
William H. Coles
ISBN 1434391582
Specifically deals with story structure and literary fiction with examples and ideas on purpose and craft to achieve the best written story possible. An excellent resource and good value.
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The Complete Guide to Writing Fiction
Barnaby Conrad
ISBN 0-89879-395-5
Primarily oriented to genre fiction, it is loosely organized in a name-dropping style that is of low value for the serious writer.
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Mythology
Arthur Cotterell & Rachael Storm
ISBN 0-7548-1488-2
An encyclopedic presentation of myth. Wonderful images to stimulate the imagination.
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The Art of Fiction
R.F. Dietrich and Roger H. Sundell
ISBN 0-03-089221-X
Many stories grouped to illustrated various aspects of writing fiction.
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The Complete Notebooks of Henry James
Leon Edel and Lyall H. Powers
ISBN 0-19-503782-0
It’s fair to say Henry James not only wrote from a stilted, often arcane, time, but that he was verbose to extreme and arrogant beyond most contemporary readers’ tolerance. Yet, he created stories that have lasted and served as resources for some of the greatest films of our time: The Golden Bowl, The Wings of the Dove, Washington Square, for examples. The notebooks, in general, are tough reading, and are meant only for reference. But there is insight galore in the thinking of James about writing and the novel that can aid any writer’s career.
The Art of Dramatic Writing
Lajos Egri
Simon and Schuster, NY: 1960
Originally written primarily for playwrights, it provides rich insight into dramatic writing. Worthy for finding (copyright in 1946) and adding to your library.
In Praise of Comedy
James K. Feibleman
ISBN 0-8180-1152-1
The role of humor in fiction is delicate. This book, off the mark for writers at times, does address comedy with thoughts that are valuable for the storyteller and can compliment a study of irony (see Booth).
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Aspects of the Novel
E. M. Forster
ISBN 0-15-609180-1
An invaluable classic. Here is where the discussion of “flat” characters was memorably introduced.
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The Art of Fiction
John Gardner
ISBN 0-394-72544-1
On the theory and process of writing creative fiction. Here is the idea of continuous fictional dream: thinking about it and why it is effective. This is a classic that seems to come in and out of favor. But the ideas are invaluable whether Gardner’s work is in vogue or not.
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On Becoming a Novelist
John Gardner
ISBN 0-06-014956-6
Helpful guide for novelists to think about their craft.
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On Moral Fiction
John Gardner
ISBN 0-456-0522-66
Ideas that every author should digest and then incorporate in his or her approach to writing. Many reprints.
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The Art of the Short Story
Dana Gioia and R.S. Gwynn
ISBN 0-321-33722-0
A valued collection of stories with a very useful section on writing. A good resource for great stories and for learning about writing.
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The Art & Craft of Novel Writing
Oakley Hall
ISBN 1-884910-02-5
A poorly organized text with a somewhat random presentation of ideas and examples. Many concepts seem newly discovered by the author rather than well thought out for presentation. Writing style is pretentious.
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Discovery and Response: The Strategies of Fiction
James Hart, Stanley Johnson, and Judah Bierman
A collection of stories for analysis. Provides no real advantage or learning over reading the stories anywhere. The introduction gives abstractions and little direction for determining the strategies of fiction noted in the title. Questions posed at the end of stories are generally not helpful to writers at any stage in their career.
Fiction as Process
Carl Hartman and Hazard Adams
A collection of stories. Not recommended except for an interesting side-by-side presentations of two different translations into English of Anton Chekhov’s “The Kiss.”
Lit from Within
Kevin Hayworth and Dinty W. Moore
ISBN 978-08214-1948-9
A rather opinioned collection of essays useful primarily because many of the authors are actively teaching fiction writing (2010).
Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction
Patricia A. Highsmith
ISBN 0-312-04867-X
A book for genre writers that may be of interest to a literary writer interested in finding the energy that suspense brings to writing. (For a literary example of effective—and rarely equaled—use of suspense see Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky.) Although light on educational value, this book has an interesting section on readers’ attitudes towards heroes. Liking a hero is not necessary, but readers must have interest and caring, and believe the writer cares also. Solid thoughts.
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Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular
Rust Hills
ISBN 0-395-44268-0
An essential, easy to comprehend, complete overview that increases in value with each read.
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The New Oxford Guide to Writing
Thomas S. Kane
ISBN 0-19-504538-6
An absolute must for a writer in any stage of career. Always something discoverable that can be usefully applied to better fiction writing.
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Revision: A Creative Approach to Writing and Rewriting Fiction
David Michael Kaplan
ISBN 1-884910-19-X
An excellent text easily read that emphasizes what we, as writers, know but don’t think about and also gives what we may not know about new ways of thinking about revision.
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On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Stephen King
ISBN 0743455967
A pleasurable look at one of the twentieth century’s most prolific and successful story tellers. Although not an instruction manual, nor aimed at literary fiction, it is valuable to see the how a very successful author sees his writing.
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Metaphors We Live By
George Lakoff and Mark Johnson
ISBN 0-226-46801-1
Fiction writers need to be in control of metaphor and rarely are. This book helps bring metaphor into focus.
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Light Up the Cave
Denise Levertov
ISBN 0-8112-0813-3
Levertov is a poet who wrote this and another book of prose. For the fiction writer, the thoughts on relationships of politics to writing alone is worth having the book. But almost everything she comments on has fresh insight into how writers should be developing their intellect.
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Steering the Craft
Urusula K. Le Guin
ISBN 0933377460
Almost anti-intellectual with a chatty, bloated style and organization that is of little use to the serious writer.
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Introduction by Tom Wolff in The Secret Life of Our Times: New Fiction from Esquire
Gordon Lish
ISBN 0-385-06215-X
These stories, only a few are valuable for a serious literary writer’s library, has this introduction by Tom Wolff that has become a classic in its time. Worthy of a search.
Writing Great Short Stories
Margaret Lucke
ISBN 0-07-0390770
Formatted as a self-help book (guide), it presents valuable thinking, particularly about structure and motivation. Ideas such as bio charts for characters seem a little grade-schoolish, yet there is valuable material throughout.
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Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Robert McKee
ISBN 0-06-039168-5
Although written for screenwriters, the book has essential ideas of story creation that should be pillars of reference for the literary fiction writer.
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Novel Writing
Evan Marshall
ISBN 1-58297-062-9
Although some valid ideas, text is presented as if writing a novel is like instructions for putting together a doghouse that comes unassembled from the manufacturer.
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Storytelling & the Art of Imagination
Nancy Mellon
ISBN 1-85230-339-5
Not specifically for writers, this book addresses the power of storytelling in ways that are useful to a writer. It provides expansive thinking about story.
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Structuring Your Novel: From Basic Idea to Finished Manuscript
Robert C. Meredith and John D. Fitzgerald
ISBN: 0-06-463325-X
A classic in common-sense, invaluable advice on structuring the writing of a novel. Application of the principles makes an author more efficient, if not significantly more readable.
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How Stories Mean
John Metcalf and J.R. Struthers (Eds).
ISBN 0-88984-127-6
Forty-seven essays with little coherence.
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Points of View: An anthology of Short Stories
James Moffett and Kenneth R. McElheny (Eds)
ISBN 0451628721
Multiple editions available. Excellent resource of stories by famous authors presented as a study of point of view. Worthy of purchase—any edition.
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The Structure of the Novel
Edwin Muir
ISBN-13: 978-1406725582
A succinct view of the novel (1928) from a series of lectures by Muir–valuable mostly as a window in time to view the development of the novel.
Lectures on Literature
Vladimir Nabokov
ISBN 0-15-6027755
Simply delightful. And informative!
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Western Wind
John Frederick Nims
ISBN 0072819596
For poets and so good. But it can also help storytellers. First, it hones appreciation of words and their usage. Second, it commands a knowledge of the essence of poetry. Poetic language in literary stories is tricky to use. Poetics is different than prose, and to mix the two without knowledge and talent can kill the potential of a great literary fiction story. This book can help shape a prose-author’s sense of poetry and help direct the restricted use of poetic ideation in prose.
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Conflict, Action, and Suspense
William Noble
ISBN 0-89879-634-2
Useful ideas about writing but ideas that are better presented, and more easily grasped, in other books.
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Fiction Writer’s Workshop
Josip Novakovich
ISBN 1-884910-39-4
Not recommended for a serious literary writer. The tone of the presentation is more getting-published than creating art.
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Art and Ardor
Cythia Ozick
ISBN 0-394-53082-9
Erudite (to extreme at times) essays that are a pleasure to read. Not for learning craft, but essential for learning to think about writing.
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Story and Structure
Laurence Perrine
ISBN 0-15-583786-9
Stories by published authors organized by fiction elements such as plot and character. Quality of stories varies. Comment is minimal and not worth seeking copies out for purchase unless you need some of stories for your reference library.
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Writers (2nd in a SERIES)
George Plimpton (Ed)
ISBN 0 14 00.4541 4
This is the second of four books of the collected interviews of famous authors from the Paris Review. Hemingway, Moore, Porter, Ellison, and Huxley are among fourteen included in this book. Other books in the series include Forster, Faulkner, Warren, Bellow, Welty, Dinesen, Steinbeck, and many others.
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Beyond Style
Gary Provost
ISBN 0-89879-314-9
With so many books on fiction, it is amazing that this provides well stated and well thoughtout ideas. Can be essential in a writer’s growth with fiction skills.
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Writing the Natural Way
Gabriele Lusser Rico
ISBN 0-87477-9618
Filled with pseudoscience and aberrant psychology as a basis for writing technique and success. This book would not be recommended by any serious writing who loves the literary fiction story.
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Techniques of Fiction Writing: Measure and Madness
Leon Surmelian
Doubleday, NY: 1968
A compact, clearly stated book on fiction writing. Difficult to find.
Making Shapely Fiction
Jerome Stern
ISBN 0-393-02929-8
About fiction, but is organized “Accuracy to Zigzag” alphabetically. Some topics are not really shapes, and the book’s striving for originality with unique presentation–and only some educational value for the student of fiction–is not worthy to recommend.
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The Elements of Style
William Strunk and E.B. White
ISBN 0-205-30902-X
The essence. Every writer can use a reread of this pocketbook every few months.
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One Writer’s Beginnings
Eudora Welty
ISBN 0-674-63925-1
Musings that were originally delivered as lectures at Harvard. Interesting but not directly helpful for a serious writer’s improvement.
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Structure, Style, and Usage: Rhetoric and Reasoning
Hulon Willis
ISBN 0-03-003386-1
About writing and not specifically about literary fiction. But a most valuable adjunct to the improvement of writing for any purpose. Highly recommended.
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The Common Reader
Virginia Wolff
ISBN 0-15-602778-X
A collection of essays (copyright 1925), a few which some may find arcane, that have a number of useful thoughts for contemporary writers. “‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘Wuthering Heights'” has thoughts to ponder.
How Fiction Works
James Wood
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-42847-1
A valuable discussion on “unidentified free indirect style.”
Description
Monica Wood
ISBN 0-89879-681-4
This is one book in the creative writing series, Elements of Fiction Writing. The author gave a good try at providing valuable concepts and interpreting them in the context of description, a category assumed to have been assigned by the series editors. The effect of including sentimentality, point-of-view, and other seeming unrelated terms under the broader topic of Description was not successful for clear understanding.
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Plotting for Every Kind of Writing
Jack Woodford
Garden City Publishing Co. Reprint Edition 1948
Although less useful for contemporary writers than when originally copyrighted (1939), it has thoughts about plotting structure that are excellent for the literary fiction writer trying to mature thinking about character-driven plots, and the importance of structure in writing in general.
Sir, will you please tell me which books out of all the above mentioned books are appropriate to begin with. I know they all are very good. Will you rate the books in terms of first reads, and obviously the rest will follow next.
Regards
Thanks for your request. I’ve recently recommended Story in Literary Fiction: A Manual for Writers (for an idea of how to identify reading stimulated by p[roblems that occur as you are writing) and Aristotle’s Poetics (to begin to embody the essences of storytelling that have directed serious creative writers for almost two mellenium). I won’t rate how-to books. These books should be as reference. I will direct, however, your reading of a specific book (usually a portion) as an aid to improving work submitted or questions posed on website.
Best regards,
WHC
Mastering Point of View, originally published by Story Press (2001), is coming out as an e-book. Would you like me to submit some of the original reviews? Alexandria Constantinova Szeman (formerly writing as Sherri). p.s. Very nice to see a site on literary fiction.
Thanks for getting in touch. And yes, please submit reviews and let me know when “Mastering Point of View” is available. Best regards, WHC
Thanks again. The comment has useful information and, with your permission, I’d like to leave it on site. If you need to contact me with a personal message, you can always use whc8826@gmail.com.