How Fiction Works: Proven Secrets to Writing Successful Stories That Hook Readers and Sell

by Oakley Hall

Book Overview

In 1989 Oakley Hall published The Art and Craft of Novel Writing, a classic text that Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Stone called "simply the best book in print to examine the strategies and necessities... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1582972931
• ISBN13: 9781582972930
• Release Date: December 2003
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Writing Literary Fiction: From Basics to Fine Points

Oakley Hall's credentials for craft books on writing literary fiction are impressive: he published 21 novels, served as director of the MFA program at the University of California at Irvine for more than two decades, and director of the Squaw Valley Writers' Summer Conference for three decades. His craft books HOW FICTION WORKS and the highly acclaimed The ART & CRAFT of NOVEL WRITING were initially published by Story Press and later by another press. HOW FICTION WORKS comprises chapters on basic elements such as specification, sensory details, language, indirection, point of view, characterization, and plot. To illustrate his points on the craft of fiction writing, Hall presents numerous examples from masters such as Gustave Flaubert, Henry James, and Joseph Conrad as well as great contemporary writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Cormac McCarthy, and Anne Tyler. Oakley Hall augments his exposition by citing examples from his own published work and giving reasons for the particular choices he made. An excellent basic book for the apprentice writer of literary fiction.

How Fiction Works

I love this book. I am not a writer and I don't intend to be one, however, this book has totally changed how I read and how I perceive my books. I now know why I prefer certain authors more than others. It's always easy to recognize a beautiful phrase, but now, I know what it is about the composition of that particular phrase or sentence that makes it work so well. This book is also easy to read; not too text bookish.

From a Fiction Author to a Fiction Author

Thank you, Mr. Hall. Your words are to the point! I like that...I need that...I have time for little else.I appreciated the "get to it" instruction. Even though I've already written three novels (in the process of the third)I know--like Hall--that I've a lot to learn. Needless to say, novel three is under some serious reconstruction! :)This book will be highly recommended by me in the future!

A good book on fiction that is clear and concise

After having read several books on the aspects of fiction writing, I found Mr. Hall's book to be one of the more interesting. Unlike some books on fiction writing, Hall does not eschew the classics, and therefore doesn't consider only genre or current fiction. His ideas on the concrete versus the vague or abstract are certainly not new and can easily be found elsewhere, but he presents his ideas in a way that is seldom dull or strictly academic. I did find his statement on page 166 about MG owners having a "raffish and go-to-hell character" a bit silly if not prejudice, but overall this was one of the better books I have read on the subject of creative fiction.

A Primer For Writing

How Fiction Works is a fantastic book for both the beginning and the experienced writer. Oakley Hall makes no assumptions, and goes into quick and rapid explanations, but thorough, on so many aspects of writing that cause problems. He pays particular attention to the problems in writing, and how to solve them, for example: Specification, concrete vs. abstract, how to utilize all the senses in your writing, words (adverbs, verbs, etc), use of dialogue, symbols, attention to point of view, and characterization (indepth). At the end of the book he pays devotes sections for the short story and novel writing. If you ever had a question, it would be answered in here. It is a quick book to read, and has many of the characteristics of a dictionary, providing quick answers but thorough. So in effect, it becomes a primer that you want on your writing shelf, no matter what type of writing you actually do.