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Summary: Why No Novels?
Review: I've read this book and agree with all the other five star reviews. Excellent! My only question is: Having nailed the process, why hasn't he written any novels? In fact, as far as I can see, this is the only book he has to his credit. I would love to read his fiction, novel length or short story.
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Summary: If you want to become a writer.....
Review: If you want to become a better writer or a more critical reader, buy this book. Most offerings in this genre resemble a well picked over smorgasbord in which one finds a few good tips among acres of wilted lettuce. What remains of the main course, conflict creation, resolution and character development is incoherently scattered among the weeds. Cleaver gets it right by giving us a complete road map to writing, self-editing and publishing fiction. He shows how to convert your onmiscient narrator essays into scenes and dialogue that drive the plot, develop character(and keep the reader's attention), how to replace those "telling" images of emotion(e.g.,"icy stab in the stomach") with "showing" the emotion through thought and dialogue. Not only is this book a "sine qua non" for writer's, it is a fun read.
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Summary: Writing Craft Made Understanable
Review: Immediate Fiction by Jerry Cleaver is the best book that I have read on writing fiction. It clearly lays out and defines terms that define the craft of writing that other books only partially explain or are murky about. This clarity makes it easier to work at learning the craft. I strongly recommend this book to all writers and would be writers.
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Summary: Pleasantly Amazed
Review: My high school english teacher, Mr. Severe, once told me if I really want to become a great writer I must read James Joyce's ULYSSES from beginning to end at least twice. I will never know if he was right because I couldn't get through that possibly great, but definitely puzzling book even once. But I did get through Jerry Cleaver's extremely straightforward IMMEDIATE FICTION, and I recommend it highly to anyone who truly wishes to succeed as a writer. The instruction I found in these pages was immediately helpful; I was able to solve a couple of problems I have had with my writing for years. Show me anyone else out there who has defined conflict so eloquently and concisely. When he writes about his discoveries in the strange world of writing creatively, I am consistently surprised by the thoroughness of his insights. I only wish he had published this book when I was seventeen. (I am almost twice that age now.) Please do yourself a favor and give this book a try.
...I heard he has a writing workshop in Chicago and I am quite seriously considering packing my bags and jumping on the next train heading to the Midwest.
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Summary: Improve your writing & write it in your own style
Review: THE BOOK: (from the inside dust cover)"...Readers will find everything they need to know about managing time, finding an idea, getting the at first word down on the page, staying unblocked, shaping ideas into complelling stories, and submitting their work to agents and publishers..." MY FEEDBACK:
1) Organization - book is well organized and easy to follow. Each chapter/section builds on the one before it with exercises to reinforce what was just presented. 2) Content - Looking back at what the dust cover publicizes, I'd say it is 99% accurate and no bull. The best part of the book for me was how logical the content was presented which made it easy to grasp and follow for an analytical mind like mine. The book is all about focusing on the components of a story = Conflict (want + obstacle) + Action + Resolution. He gets indepth on these but no so much that you get lost or bogged down with details. 3) Usefulness - First of all, this is the first book I've read that explains how you can easily turn a short story into a novel by simply adding more characters. More characters = more conflict = more scenes = longer story. Secondly, I feel one of my weaknesses is ending a darn piece of writing (lacking a solid resolution). After reading this I feel I can now identify how to correct this problem. Thirdly, this book helped me identify feedback I was receiving from writing groups on how my stories weren't having enough "umph" to them. This book helped me better understand how I can identify if I have all the correct components in my scene or story to create proper dramatic movement. Fourthly, great advice on how to tackle those rewrites and edit phases of one's work. It seems so easy now and less cumbersome. Lastly, he really gets down to the nitty gritting of writer's block and how to overcome this. Great chapter!! OVERALL: Great book. Even though I got this at the library and have already read it, I want to buy it and read it over and over again. Simple, straight forward instruction on how to get it all done and have your work ready for submission.
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