A Passion for Narrative: A Guide to Writing Fiction - Softcover

Hodgins, Jack

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0771041888 ISBN 13: 9780771041884

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart, 1993

Synopsis

This book is not intended to persuade you to take up writing novels or short stories – “It’s going to be a lot of work,” Jack Hodgins warns. Nor will it tell you how to market your stories. But it will take you through the problems facing any fiction writer and show you how some of the best writers in English have solved them.

The chapters are clear and comprehensive: Finding Your Own Stories; One Good Sentence After Another – on the skills of writing well; Setting; Character – how to make your characters come alive; Plot; Structure – “The Architecture of Story”; Point of View and Voice; Metaphors, Symbols and Allusions; Revising – an all-important chapter that also deals with the impact of writing on a computer; The Story of a Story – where Jack Hodgins talks of his own experience with one of his most famous stories; and the final chapter, And Now What? – Creating Your Own Workshop, which builds on the fact that every chapter in the book contains writing exercises to help you work away at home at “the mysterious business of writing fiction.”

As an award-winning novelist and short-story writer Jack Hodgins is uniquely qualified to preach what he practises. As a trained teacher, he has been giving creative lessons for thirty years, at high schools and universities and to writers’ summer schools. In recent years his creative writing courses at the University of Victoria have become discreetly famous. Now, anyone who buys this book can share in the experience of learning fiction-writing from a master.

With its scores of examples of first-class writing this lively, truly fascinating book will almost certainly make you be atter writer; it is guaranteed to make you a better reader.

About this title

About the Author

Jack Hodgins was born and raised on Vancouver Island. He taught Creative Writing at a number of Canadian universities, and retired from the University of Victoria in 2002.

He is the author of seven novels, including The Invention of the World; The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne, winner of the Governor General’s Award; The Macken Charm; Broken Ground, winner of the Ethel Wilson Prize for Fiction; and Distance; and three books of short stories, Spit Delaney’s Island, a finalist for the Governor General’s Award; The Barclay Family Theatre; and Damage Done by the Storm. He is also the author of A Passion for Narrative: A Guide for Writing Fiction.

Hodgins has been awarded the Canada-Australia Prize, among many others, has received three honorary degrees, and has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
From the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Described as "a book of inspiration and practical exercises for fiction writers," this work examines all the aspects of writing, from getting started through setting, character, plot, structure, revision, and a final section entitled "And now what?" Novelist Hodgins identifies the range of options available at each stage; quoting other writers, many of whom are little known in this country, he makes this book a voyage of discovery. Grammar is not discussed, nor is motivation; Hodgins presumes both. He does not presume knowledge of the terminology of writing, though, and is careful to explain terms before discussing each concept. In each chapter, exercises and a reading list further illuminate the points discussed. Divided into discrete sections, this book can be used as a reference tool, but it should be read through once first. It's fair to say that while the text does lag at times, it never lags for long, and struggling novelists out there should find most of their conundrums addressed. Recommended. -Robert C. Moore, DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Co. Information Svces., Wilmington, Del.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0771041888
• ISBN 13: 9780771041884
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304