Take Your Characters to Dinner: Creating the Illusion of Reality in Fiction (A Creative Writing Course)

By Laurel Yourke

Book Overview

"Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense." In Mark Twain's time, as in ours, we accept reality as plausible. In writing, however, readers must be coaxed into accepting plots and characters as real. Take Your Characters to Dinner: Creating the Illusion of Reality in Fiction shows writers exactly how to do that. The book introduces the saucy, redheaded character Georgina, who is getting to know the characters in her novel. Along with Georgina, readers discover how to write compelling fiction. Each chapter of this book covers one aspect of fiction writing, using analysis, checklists, models, examples of humorous errors, and writing exercises. An extensive glossary is also provided.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0761816941
• ISBN13: 9780761816942
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: University Press of America
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Know your characters as you might a friend

I treasure Laurel Yourke's book, Take Your Characters to Dinner. Don't tell, show are red inked words writing students tire of seeing. Showing is the beauty of Laurel Yourke's book. Dr. Yourke believes that an author should know his characters as one might know a friend through---a faithful listening and response, tough scrutiny and with love. Dr. Yourke creates a delightful character, Georgina, to lead us through a writing course. The reader leans back to listen not only to Dr. Laurel Yourke but also Georgina. With clear cogent chapters on aspects of writing, concrete checklists, and marvelous escapades with Georgina, the reader comes to a new perception or understanding of the task at hand. Buy this book. It will help you to find your true voice: "But no matter how well you know your characters, you cannot shame or command your voice out of hiding. The flamboyant colors of autumn leaves that delight us each year don't appear magically. Instead, the chlorophyll disappears, so nothing disguises the brilliance that always existed underneath. Voice isn't a matter of splashing dazzling color onto the surface but revealing your true colors."

Dinner? This is dessert, too!

I'm a novelist and screenwriter, and find this book gloriously helpful to me personally as a writer. I've also had the opportunity to be in Laurel Yourke's classrooms, both as a student and fellow teacher at the university, and can attest to the effectiveness of her techniques for a wide spectrum of writers, beginners through advanced pro's. This "creative writing course," as the cover calls it, gives you the full meal plus the fun of dessert. The secret of this book? Shhh. It's not just about character. This is a refreshing, authoritative plotting book. I love its checklists and stretching exercises, and the right-on examples that show clearly how to apply the techniques. You'll appreciate the extensive discussion on how to get plot from character, how to deepen tension and so on. This book goes beyond the usual character trait discussions. It also gives much attention to dialogue, which is a rare topic in many writing texts for some reason. Although we call this a "text," worthy of any academic classroom, it's written in a conversational style that draws you in. Laurel Yourke's classroom teaching style is laced with humor while she nudges you to dig deeper and make discoveries. That style is reflected here. You'll like following along with fictional writer Georgina and her challenges, too. Although you can dip back into any chapter anytime, each chapter also relates its elements to the others coming before and after it, so you have this satisfying feeling of sitting in a favorite rocking chair while you soak up Laurel Yourke's wisdom gleaned from years of teaching writing. But don't be misled by my mention of the rocking chair. You'll find each chapter so encouraging that you'll be eager to write. As one of her subheads says, you'll learn how to wed perspiration with magic.

Fiction Writers' New Best Friend

This is a book you'll want there with you, open, whenever you write. This must-read, must-have, book for fiction writers comes out of Laurel Yourke's thirty years of experience working with all kinds of writers. Writers love to read books about writing. You probably have a few (or more) books about writing on your own bookshelf already, but this one belongs in your hand, not on the shelf. This is a multi-layered book, though as is obvious from the title, the central focus is on character. It is fun, funny, and very serious about getting to good writing. It has chapters on plot, point of view, texture, dialogue, and setting, and, a clearly written glossary. In its own way, each chapter leads back to character, and insists on the integration of all fictional elements. The chapters are structured around several elements consistently seen throughout the book. The first is Yourke's scenes with her character, Georgina, who readers get to know as a writer struggling with her characters, and readers follow along. Yourke also illustrates her points in the presentation of short pieces by other writers and in discussions of what makes the pieces work. Quotes by established writers about the chapters' topics are illuminating, interesting, and expand the reader's understanding. Then there is the body of the chapter, which is the exploration of the particular aspect of fiction, often enriched by being turned around so we can see it from all sides, like a three-dimensional object. We see the facets of dialogue, for example, by examining conflict, subtext, pacing, and dialect. Chapters are accompanied by exercises and by checklists to guide writers in looking at their own writing. I read several of the chapters a number of times and found something new and important among these layers each time I did. But, here's the best compliment I can offer -- and I had this experience every time I read in this book -- I was itching to write and felt confident that I had new skills to do it with.

Characters Alive

Here is a unique and compelling "how-to write" book. "Take Your Characters to Dinner", by Laurel Yourke, takes a character intensive approach to the essential elements of craft including point of view and viewpoint, plot, dialogue, scene, conflict and setting. However, unlike most other texts which present the elements of craft chapter-by-chapter, in virtual isolation, Yourke unifies the subject matter via emphasis on characterization. As implied by the title, Yourke encourages the writer to gain an intimate familiarity with his characters and allow the characters to thrive, growing in depth and vitality, becoming, to the writer, real people. Such vitality, Yourke demonstrates, drives plot and story. Vitality and resonance are central themes of the text, suggesting that the characters of your story, known intimately, will "tell the story". This premise is tempered by chapters on "details", "texture", "connections", and "voice", which reinforce the writer's guiding role and responsibility in crafting fiction. Woven through the book is the narrative of "Georgina", Dr. Yourke's fictional struggling writer. Readers, male and female alike, will readily identify with the travails of Georgina as she "takes her characters to dinner", discovering personality trait and quirk, and aspects of character heretofore unimagined. The reader sees Georgina's writing mature as the text progresses, paralleling the readers own progress. Of notable significance is Yourke's use of prose examples, both good writing and bad, throughout the text. The book is well organized, concise and clearly written. The author speaks easily and with the conviction of one dedicated to the craft, evoking in the reader her enthusiasm and effervescent spirit. Writer's will appreciate the fresh and exciting approach of this new book. I highly recommend "Take Your Characters to Dinner" as the next step in your journey as a writer..