The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Writing Fiction and Nonfiction

A beloved writing teacher compiles fifteen years of her expertise, exercises, and examples in a new primer for creative writers. The Making of a Story is a fresh and inspiring guide to the basics of creative writing—both fiction and creative nonfiction. Its hands-on, completely accessible approach walks writers through each stage of the creative process, from the initial triggering idea to the revision of the final manuscript. It is unique in combing the three main aspects of creative writing instruction: process (finding inspiration, getting ideas on the page), craft (specific techniques like characterization), and anthology (learning by reading masters of the form). Succinct, clear definitions of basic terms of fiction are accompanied by examples, including excerpts from masterpieces of short fiction and essays as well as contemporary novels. A special highlight is Alice LaPlante's systematic debunking of many of the so-called rules of creative writing. This book is perfect for writers working alone as well as for creative writing classes, both introductory and advanced.

Haven't finished reading this book yet, but I like what I've read so far. A detailed and insightful approach to creative writing of all types. The author recognizes that good writing is good writing and good storytelling is good storytelling, no matter what genre you write in.

This is a very readable, insightful, and well structured guide to the fundamentals of writing.

Inspirational books on writing are cheaper by the dozen. Many are wonderful (On Writing, Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within (Shambhala Library)), while still quite high level. _The Making of a Story_ is the first text I've found that breaks writing down into its nuts and bolts, examining one element at a time (e.g. point of view, scene versus narrative) till you really get it well enough to deploy skillfully in your own work.

As a little bonus, the author includes writing samples from her past students, with attribution, to illustrate key points. They're often great fun, more so than the "famous" writers.

In fact, my only quibble about the book would be that the many of the short works included as examples are rather dark - but that seems to be the fashion of the times.

Full disclosure: I am taking the author's writing class at Stanford, using this text. Really good.

I have read several books, read numerous articles and taken courses on writing. This author truly seems to get to the heart of what creative writing is all about. She dispells many "truisms" and "rules" of creative writing, and in the process, substitutes the proper technique and balance of writing in their place. I found it eminently helpful. I expect her writing classes are just as wonderful.

I purchased this book a few years ago and fell in love with her philosophy on writing fiction. She explains the necessary aspects and offers comprehensive exercises to complement each element.

The examples of published works are easy to obtain and relate to the message for each chapter.

I consider this book my thesaurus because I return again and again and always discover something I missed the first time around.

It's a keeper for any serious fiction writer.

D. Kent

Alice LaPlante pours her fifteen years of experience as a writer and educator into The Making of a Story, a solid and instructional guide to writing, from inspiration to the process of getting ideas on paper to editing and refining one's work. Presented in a format that lends to being read straight through or used as a reference tool in response to specific issues, The Making of a Story is accessible, user-friendly, packed with examples and an all-around solid pick for aspiring writers everywhere. "One good way to think about openings is to think in terms of balance. Either things are out of kilter, or they will soon be; there's an imbalance, or a missing link, some mystery about what is happening that draws us into the story. It can be subtle... but it has to be there."