The Art of Writing Fiction

Andrew Cowan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781138436626
• eBook ISBN: 9781317861522
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

The Art of Writing Fiction guides the reader through the processes of creative writing from journal-keeping to editing, offering techniques for stimulating creativity and making language vivid. Readers will master key aspects of fiction such as structure, character, voice and setting.

Andrew Cowan provides an insightful introduction that brings his own well-crafted prose style to bear on the processes and pleasures of writing fiction, offering practical and personal advice culled from his own experience and that of other published writers. He lays open to the reader his own notes, his writing, and the experiences from his own life that he has drawn on in his fiction allowing the reader to develop their own writing project alongside the author as they go through the book.

For Lynne

The Art of Writing Fiction

Cowan Andrew

First published 2011 by Pearson Education Limited

Published 2013 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright © 2011, Taylor & Francis.

The right of Andrew Cowan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices

Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary.

Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.

ISBN: 978-1-4082-4834-8 (pbk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781315833323

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Cowan, Andrew.

The art of writing fiction / Andrew Cowan.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4082-4834-8 (pbk.)

1. Fiction–Authorship. 2. Creative writing. I. Title.

PN3355.C69 2011

808.3–dc22

2010049764

Set by 35 in 11/13pt Bulmer MT

Contents and exercises

• Publisher's acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Writers' routines
  • 1. When where what…
  • 2. Timewasting
  • 3. Friends and foes
  • 4. What where when …
• 2 Write about what you know: observational journals
  • 5. Keeping an observational journal
  • 6. Keeping a scrapbook
  • 7. Weather report
  • 8. Street life
  • 9. Workplace
  • 10. Home life
• 3 Write about what you don't know you know: automatic writing
  • 11. First thoughts
  • 12. First things
  • 13. First thoughts, second thoughts
  • 14. First drafts
• 4 Don't tell me …
  • 15. Telling it slant
  • 16. Don't mention it
  • 17. How does this feel?
  • 18. Sightless
  • 19. Hyacinths
  • 20. Summary and scene
• 5 Write about what you used to know: remembering and place
  • 21. Lost things
  • 22. Lost lands
  • 23. Lost selves
  • 24. Lost loves
  • 25. ‘Lost’
  • 26. Departures
  • 27. Typical
  • 28. Untypical
  • 29. A place
  • 30. A person
• 6 Write about who you know: character
  • 31. A Portrait of Yourself as You Are Now
  • 32. Twenty questions
  • 33. Q&A gimmick
  • 34. Notes towards a character
  • 35. Envelopes
  • 36. Still life
  • 37. Two characters
• 7 Voices
  • 38. Oral history
  • 39. Conversation
  • 40. Formatting dialogue
  • 41. Dramatic twist
  • 42. Cross purposes
  • 43. Vernacular voices
  • 44. In s...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Frontmatter 1
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Publisher's acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Writers' routines
• 2 Write about what you know: observational journals
• 3 Write about what you don't know you know: automatic writing
• 4 Don't tell me …
• 5 Write about what you used to know: remembering and place
• 6 Write about who you know: character
• 7 Voices
• 8 Viewpoints
• 9 Middles, ends, beginnings: structure
• 10 Making strange: defamiliarisation
• 11 Making clear: revision, grammar and punctuation
• 12 Workshopping
• Bibliography
• Index