Immediate Fiction: A Complete Writing Course - Hardcover

Cleaver, Jerry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 031228716X ISBN 13: 9780312287160

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2002

Synopsis

An indispensible guide, filled with practical strategies, suggestions, and tips, helps the beginning writer to better understand the writing process by covering such topics as managing time, finding an idea, and submitting their work to agents and publishers. 10,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

Musicians and artists might need talent to succeed, but writers don't, says Jerry Cleaver in Immediate Fiction. Cleaver allows that talent is needed to win a National Book Award, say, but otherwise, any of us can do it. All we need is the ability to "develop and exercise sadistic license." The operative word is conflict. As Cleaver puts it, "Happy lives make lousy novels.... If the characters are having a good time, the reader is not." He takes the mystery out of fiction writing. You don't have to write about what you know, he says; write what you can imagine. Don't fret if you can't find large chunks of time to write. Start with five minutes on weekdays and 20 on weekends, and you'll have 100 to 300 pages by year's end. Perhaps most refreshing about Cleaver's approach is the lack of directives. Some writing instructors demand that you work with an outline; others forbid it. Cleaver claims that teachers who tell you to do it one way or the other are telling you not how you work best, but how they work best. --Jane Steinberg

From the Back Cover:

The Only Writing Book You'll Ever Need

From the legendary creator of the Writer's Loft in Chicago, comes a writing course for those who want to see results now. Immediate Fiction covers the entire process of writing including manuscript preparation, time management, finding an idea, getting words on the page, staying unblocked, and submitting to agents and publishers.

With insightful tips and advice, Jerry Cleaver helps writers manage doubts, fears, blocks, and panic all while helping to develop their writing in minutes a day. A practical and accessible resource, this book has everything the aspiring writer needs to write and sell novels, short stories, screenplays, and stage plays.

About this edition

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 031228716X
• ISBN 13: 9780312287160
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304