Making Shapely Fiction

Rating:
Summary: As a former student of Jerome Stern...
Review: I had the good fortune to take two classes with Prof. Stern during my creative writing major at Florida State and I still remember now only what a great teacher he was, but also how useful this book was. I was very fortunate to have learned directly from the author. Rumors of him being a "pit-bull" in class are laughable to anyone who knew him, but I suppose such rumors arise around anyone who reaches a certain level of public exposure. From my experience, those who didn't like his classes were generally weak or gutless writers who couldn't take Stern's frank criticism. But that's another topic...

Making Shapely Fiction is not a complete "how to" on writing, but it gives aspiring creative writers a wide variety of ideas that they can put to use immediately. I know my writing improved the day I cracked open this book. Almost every page has something useful for new and experienced writers alike. This book WILL NOT lay out all the steps to writing your first novel (in fact it's probably better suited to short story writing which was Stern's favorite medium), nor will it make up for a poor general education in english. It will however, be a useful addition to any literary arsenal for casual and serious writers alike.

Rating:
Summary: Not enough development of the ideas
Review: The "shapes" are not developped enough to be useful in creating a salable story. These are merely toy exercizes good for a college class in which no one expects to write for a living, oir write at all for that matter.

Rating:
Summary: Useful but Spotty
Review: The first part of this book feels at times more like criticism of story types than a writing manual. It details how stories have historically been structured and what advantages and disadvantages there are in each shape. Trying to grasp the Onion or the Visitation makes a good academic exercise, but it doesn't really get into the application of the relevant concepts.

The second and third parts are where this book gets useful. The second part is made up of essays on the craft--one on what it means to write what you know (a more inclusive idea than you may have realized) and one on what tragic pitfalls to avoid. Beware, young writer, for many others have fallen in these pits before you, and many more will follow.

The third part is a thorough glossary of writing terms, defined so a layman or a young author can grasp them without struggle. This is probably the most useful part of the book. When your editor, writing workshop, or trusted reviewer starts trying to define the strengths of weaknesses of your writing, you can consult this glossary to find out exactly what is being said. And when you're called upon to lend a hand to your fellow writers, this glossary will be your arsenal of concepts to communicate your meaning.

Advanced or experienced writers may not find much in this book that they haven't encountered already. However, young writers who haven't published their first full book will be able to mine this for ideas, communication, and a way to move forward in their writing.