One Great Way to Write Short Stories

By Ben Nyberg

Book Overview

a very good text book to learn how to write short stories This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898793270
• ISBN13: 9780898793277
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: North Light Books
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 1.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

At Last! Short Story Writing Demystified

I agree with other posts -- why is this book out of print? Heck, if it were up to me, it would be posted online, distributed to schools all across the world, and Ben Nyberg's statue put up somewhere spectacular. The problem that baffles so many of us in writing fiction is, "Where does experience leave off and imagination take over?" Nyberg's "PRIMER" method makes it so easy to gently disentangle real experience from imagination until -- lo and behold -- not only a story but a pretty good one if I say so myself! The PRIMER is like a good set of training wheels. With continued practice, those little wheels keep getting pushed up until one discovers oneself riding on two wheels. With even more practice, it becomes easier to "pop wheelies" by launching stories from Plot, Character or scene setting origins. Too bad there are no Nyberg websites and no means of learning what our esteemed author is "up to now," presupposing he is still alive, etc. I hope he is well. Now then -- how about putting this book back into print!!

A wonderful place to start if you have a story to tell

As a former student of Nyberg, maybe I'm a little biased when I talk about his incredible talent for story-crafting and narrative divination. In this book, however, he's hit upon the main obstacles that stop beginning story writers. Unlike so many writing books, this is not based on conjecture, or even the technique of *one* successful writer. It's based on a lifetime of writing and teaching experience. Nyberg has been writing and teaching people to write for so many years, he might be embarrassed if I put how many. His method was developed by seeing what worked for his students. I've watched him take a classroom full of people who've never written a decent story in their lives, and using the method in his book, help all of them create stories worth reading. If you've always felt you had a story to tell, or many stories to tell, but never knew where to start, this book is for you. If you've gotten started and just don't know where to go from there, this book is for you. It's such a shame that the book is no longer in print, but it's well worth a search to get a copy.

One great Way to Write Short Stories

One great Way to Write Short Stories (a step by step approach) by Ben Nyberg(What follows is my abbreviated summary of his technique. Mostly what follows are direct quotes from the book - sorry I forget the quote marks.)Where Exactly is Square One? Imagine an individual life represented by a line graph passing through a series of daily segments. A typical day for most of us would get expressed by a flat line, because on most days nothing much happens, nothing terribly crucial. But, fiction concerns itself with those days when something does happen, when the line graph isn't flat because a "turning point" experience occurs to change things. This "deflection" can be expressed graphically by a crooked line. Our imaginary hero starts out his day at point A, possibly thinking to end it at point B (an ordinary day). But something happens at point C to change all that. So he end his day at point D rather than point B. Whatever it was at point C, it had quite an impact and made a strong deflection in our hero's life line... If we say that the primary principle of a short story is deflection, we can work out some of the main features of its procedure as well. First of all, readers ought to witness the actual turning-point crisis in full. Only if they share that experience with the main character, blow by blow, will they be able to appreciate how he or she feels about it. But they must know more than just the facts of the crisis itself. To understand events, we have to understand the context they occur in. This means, in a story, showing what led up to the crisis and what happened afterward as a result. The cause and the effect. The before and the after. In terms of our line graph it means taking at least three readings - at A, at C, and at D.Step 1. Recollection. Choose an experience which meets the following criteria:1. Turning Point or Deflection2. Choice of Options3. No Operatic Melodrama4. Single Short Scene5. Specific Issue6. Shared Experience Write "Narrative A" - summarise in 300-400 words details of the experience in the first person (e.g. "I did ...") an overall account of what occurred and how you felt about it.Step 2. Speculation. Check personal-characteristic checklist (in the book) for 'Person B' (the person with whom you shared the experience). Write "Narrative B" for person B's point of view (while reading Narrative A). Sceptically challenge each statement in Narrative A then tell it from B's standpoint.Step 3. Transposition. Rewrite "Narrative B" into "Narrative B2". Change first person into author's point of view. Make pronoun substitutions and minor rewordings to make sense clear. Small changes in wording to make a big change in the way readers "hear" the account. In Narrative B2 an anonymous narrator is in charge, making cooler, more objective presentation that puts space between us and the action.Step 4. Magnification. Pick out the few details that will best show readers what it was like - or more precisely, what you want them to fee

A practical and inspiring compass, even as you outgrow it.

I've been using "One Great Way. . . ." for about ten years now and I can't believe I'm the first one here to write a review on it, and it shouldn't be out of print. It's so good because it makes such good sense. Believe me, if you're reading this and haven't got a copy--get one. It a an essay on how to read a story as well as a method for writing one. It is clear, and usable right from the first chapter. Even as I go about writing my own way now Mr. Nyberg's lessons guide me. Thank-you Mr. Nyberg