Telling Stories: The Craft of Narrative and the Writing Life - Softcover

Martin, Lee

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1496202023 ISBN 13: 9781496202024

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 2017

Synopsis

A prolific and award-winning writer, Lee Martin has put pen to paper to offer his wisdom, honed during thirty years of teaching the oh-so-elusive art of writing. Telling Stories is intended for anyone interested in thinking more about the elements of storytelling in short stories, novels, and memoirs. Martin clearly delineates helpful and practical techniques for demystifying the writing process and provides tools for perfecting the art of the scene, characterization, detail, point of view, language, and revision—in short, the art of writing. His discussion of the craft in his own life draws from experiences, memories, and stories to provide a more personal perspective on the elements of writing.

Martin provides encouragement by sharing what he’s learned from his journey through frustrations, challenges, and successes. Most important, Telling Stories emphasizes that you are not alone on this journey and that writers must remain focused on what they love: the process of moving words on the page. By focusing on that purpose, Martin contends, the journey will always take you where you’re meant to go.
 

About this title

About the Author

Lee Martin is a distinguished professor of English and teaches creative writing at Ohio State University. He is the author of several books, including Such a Life (Nebraska, 2012), From Our House (Nebraska, 2009), The Bright Forever (finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for fiction), and Turning Bones (Nebraska, 2003).
 
 

Review

"'Telling Stories' is a rich, sublime guidebook, part memoir, and part clear objective advice to the novice and seasoned writer. Its value should prove immeasurable for anybody willing to write without fear, write again, and write some more." ~ Christopher John Stephens in PopMatters

"No doubt aspiring writers will appreciate this honesty, and may find many of the writing prompts here helpful, particularly to unclog a blockage. But it is Martin's own literary journey that is most compelling. " - Sara Lonsdale in The Times Literary Supplement

"I gave up searching for the writing cookbook, until I found Lee Martin's Telling Stories. . . . Martin combines writing tips with examples from literature and his own life and teachings. It's a clever, warm-hearted book for writers of fiction or creative nonfiction. It could be used in creative writing classes or kept on the desk for those days one needs a little shot of inspiration." - Debbie Hagan in Brevity. 

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1496202023
• ISBN 13: 9781496202024
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 258