Books on Short Story Writing
THE ABSOLUTE BEST BOOK THAT ANY WRITER CAN BUY (whether you are a screenwriter, novelist, short story writer, etc.): The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, 3rd Edition by Christopher Vogler
Let's Write a Short Story by Joe Bunting
Let's Write a Short Story! is an eBook about the process of writing and publishing short stories. The book will guide you through the process of researching publications, writing your story, editing, and submitting your work to literary magazines.
It's also a primer in how to make a career in fiction writing. If you've ever wanted to be a writer, this book will help get you started.
It's also a primer in how to make a career in fiction writing. If you've ever wanted to be a writer, this book will help get you started.
- Why all the great writers started with short stories, and why you should, too.
- How to build a fiction platform with short stories rather than just another blog.
- How short stories are structured differently than novels.
- What theme to write about to give you a greater shot at being published.
- How to break through your writer's block when you get stuck.
- How to submit your short stories to literary magazines (and which ones you should submit to).
Creating Short Fiction: The Classic Guide to Writing Short Fiction by Damon Knight
Distilled from decades of teaching and practice, this book offers clear and direct advice on structure, pacing, dialogue, getting ideas, working with the unconscious, and more. Newly revised and expanded for this Third Edition, Creating Short Fiction is a popular and widely trusted guide to writing short stories of originality, durability, and quality. Celebrated short-story author and writing instructor Knight also includes many examples and exercises that have been effective in classrooms and workshops everywhere.
The Art of the Short Story by Dana Gioia
A robust volume of 63 stories from 52 authors from 20 different countries, Gwynn and Gioia's anthology seems destined for undergraduate classrooms. Most of the editors' selections come from the usual literary heavyweights, authors like Hemingway, Chekhov, Joyce, Borges, Faulkner, Welty and Melville. But they do include a handful of more contemporary writers, such as Chinua Achebe, Ha Jin, Sandra Cisneros and Alice Munro as well. Each author receives a page-long biography, which dispenses some interesting facts (e.g., Tolstoy's infidelities, Woolf's depression, Gogol's madness, Poe's poverty, Mishima's suicide), gives a careful analysis of the author's works and sets them in the context of various literary traditions. Garcia Marquez's use of magical realism, for example, is connected to the surreal writings of Kafka, Maupassant, Cheever, Singer and Rushdie. Teachers and would-be writers will especially appreciate the "Author's Perspective" that accompanies each short story. This commentary, written by the author of the story itself, is used by the editors to illuminate the fictional text: its aims, its context or its workings. Sherwood Anderson and Raymond Carver's essays, for example, offer advice on the craft of writing. Margaret Atwood discusses Canadian identity; Alice Walker writes on race and gender; Camus discusses revolution and repression. Fitzgerald's self-interview and Cheever's "Why I Write Short Stories" both contain a comic edge, while Flannery O'Connor's essay explains the importance of religious grace in her stories. The anthology also includes instructional sections on the basic elements of short fiction, writing about fiction, critical approaches from various theoretical schools and a glossary of literary terms.
How to Write Short Stories in 6 Easy Steps by KS Tan
The short story is deceptively simple to write but frustratingly hard to master. It requires the ability to distill an entire story--all of its emotion, character development, and action--into a few thousand words. Due to its length, writers do not have the luxury of a long buildup or character development. You have to do more with less.
This eBook contains creative exercises and a step-by-step guide to writing a short story. It also includes a "Practical Application" section for most of the steps, where you will develop a sample story of your own. You will generate a story idea, a character, and follow the steps outlined in the book to see how the steps are applied.
This ebook focuses on just the writing process itself. Its intention is to allow you to see how it is done and to follow along. And by following the steps, to produce a short story of your own.
This eBook contains creative exercises and a step-by-step guide to writing a short story. It also includes a "Practical Application" section for most of the steps, where you will develop a sample story of your own. You will generate a story idea, a character, and follow the steps outlined in the book to see how the steps are applied.
This ebook focuses on just the writing process itself. Its intention is to allow you to see how it is done and to follow along. And by following the steps, to produce a short story of your own.
How NOT To Write Short Stories Seven Errors To Avoid by John Howard Reid
This book examines the following points: 1. Accessibility. Don’t make your work hard to read. Make it easy for all your potential readers. 2. Titles. Avoid long titles. 3. Point of view. Avoid using a third person viewpoint when a first would be more effective. 4. Names. Avoid endlessly repeating the name of your central character. Avoid difficult names unless your intention is humorous. Avoid making your characters all talk the same way. 5. Avoid starting off on a low note. Get the reader involved from the outset. Avoid repetitive subject-verb-predicate sentences. Defy new-age grammarians and use gerunds occasionally. Don’t use “was….was” constructions. 6. Watch your language. Avoid dull dialog, foreign phrases and even more so, foreign dialog. Avoid dialog that doesn’t perform any functions except take up space. Make sure the reader can sense who is speaking the lines even if you don’t actually identify the speaker. 7. Avoid making two words grow where even one would be superfluous. Wordiness is a common fault in most entries. Writers can’t help but fall in love with every word they write, so it’s important to have an unbiased person check to see if your story is literally drowning in words. The author is Chief Judge of three annual USA literary events, including the Tom Howard Short Story Contest and the Margaret Reid Contest for Traditional Verse.
How To Write and Sell Short Stories by Della Galton
This is a must-have book for any new writer and a welcome addition to the library of established writers who are hoping to 'up their game'. Have you ever wondered why your short stories are rejected? What is the secret of selling your work? How do you make sure your characters are memorable, your plots realistic and your twists both satisfying and unpredictable? Della Galton answers these and many more questions using a format that will already be familiar to writers: What? Why? When? How? Where? and, Who?
How to Write Short Stories (With Samples) by Ring W. Lardner
Ring Lardner (1885-1933) was a well-known humorist and sports writer living in Chicago. In 1924, F. Scott Fitzgerald arranged for How to Write Short Stories to be published and more attention was then paid to Lardner’s work.
Schaum's Quick Guide to Writing Great Short Stories by Margaret Lucke
This guide to writing compelling, memorable short stories gives you all the essentials without wasted words. It tells you how and where to get ideas, how to establish and sustain excitement, how to create live, colorful characters, and how to plot, develop and bring home your story. It even includes exercises to help you perfect your story-telling skills. Full of tips and techniques that work, it makes an indispensable, reliable collaborator. You'll find it ideal whether you're studying alone or supplementing a creative or fiction writing course, conference or workshop.
A Short Story Writer's Companion by Tom Bailey
Ideal for anyone interested in writing short stories or for introductory courses in fiction writing, A Short Story Writer's Companion is a highly accessible guide to the craft of creating short fiction. Written in an engaging style, this book enables beginning writers to recognize what works in writing short stories, what doesn't, and why. Part One of A Short Story Writer's Companion discusses fictional truth and significant detail, helping students of the form to make good sense of the often taught creative writing maxim, "Show, don't tell!" Part Two delves into the elements of fiction: character, point of view, plot, setting and time, metaphor, and voice. The author uses specific examples from a variety of widely anthologized short stories to demonstrate how each component functions as a part of the whole and offers advice on the techniques of using each of the elements successfully. Part Three closely examines the fiction-writing process and helps guide writers who may never have written a short story before through drafting, revising, and polishing short stories of their own.