The Passionate, Accurate Story

Fülszöveg

THE PASSIONATE, ACCURATE STORY

MAKING YOUR HEART'S TRUTH INTO LITERATURE BY CAROL BLY
This is a book for fiction writers that every lover of literature will enjoy and learn from. The Passionate, Accurate Story demonstrates that we can write beautiful stories that address the griefs of our age and use the skills of our time; this generous book welcomes readers as well as writers to its mix of insights about the short story.
Carol Bly, acclaimed short-story writer, essayist, and teacher of advanced writing, irh. agrees with John Gardner that critics' tools are not makers' tools. She suggests that good stories are built inwardly, using every resource, including stage-develop-ment theory, the successful techniques of social work, and the wonderful cunning of psychotherapy. Bly distinguishes between the way we approach writing the first draft from the classic narrative techniques that we bring to bear on the later drafts. The book combines fine points of plot, subplot,... Tovább

Fülszöveg

THE PASSIONATE, ACCURATE STORY

MAKING YOUR HEART'S TRUTH INTO LITERATURE BY CAROL BLY
This is a book for fiction writers that every lover of literature will enjoy and learn from. The Passionate, Accurate Story demonstrates that we can write beautiful stories that address the griefs of our age and use the skills of our time; this generous book welcomes readers as well as writers to its mix of insights about the short story.
Carol Bly, acclaimed short-story writer, essayist, and teacher of advanced writing, irh. agrees with John Gardner that critics' tools are not makers' tools. She suggests that good stories are built inwardly, using every resource, including stage-develop-ment theory, the successful techniques of social work, and the wonderful cunning of psychotherapy. Bly distinguishes between the way we approach writing the first draft from the classic narrative techniques that we bring to bear on the later drafts. The book combines fine points of plot, subplot, dialogue, and use of place with ideas about bringing one's values and one's twentieth century anxieties into American literature.
In a tour de force of construction, Bly has built the book itsplf like a short story: to illustrate the various narrative techniques, the author introduces two different sets of characters (as well as a dog!), and suggests possible ways of bringing them together at the conclusion. Carol Bly writes: "Our world needs better heart than we have given it so far. Stories might show that: how touching the world is, and how we want to pour out a sort of literary kindness onto it, so it can turn in that kindness—the way it turns in the cold air."
Photo: Darlene Pfister Vissza