Holly Ducarte: Book Reports for the Novel Writing Program

[HollyDucarte]

Books:

The Art of Fiction

Writing the Breakout Novel

Write Away

The Writing Life

 

The first book I read out of these four was The Writing Life because I'd heard a great deal about it, and always enjoy looking through the window of another author's life. Did the book help me as an author? Not entirely, no, but Dillard's candidness about her journey as a writer with all of its struggles and procrastination was endearing and relatable. Her ability to set the scene when she goes in between topics is wonderfully crafted. Some lessons or advice I took away from this book were:

1) As a writer you climb a long ladder until you can see over the roof, or over the clouds. (It is a tiresome and at times thankless pursuit, but one, if passion remains, can be achieved.)

2) There is something you find interesting, for a reason hard to explain. It is hard to explain because you have never read it on any page; there you begin.

There was nothing I noticed within this book that conflicted with lessons and readings in the novel program, as it wasn't directly teaching per say, rather affording the reader insight into what it would be like to write for a living.

 

The second book I read was The Art of Fiction. I have to say I found this, personally, a dry, technical read. It was hard to get around his analogies, that I felt were more personal opinion sometimes rather than related to craft, as well as his analytical jargon. Still, did the book help me as an author? Yes, there were a lot of important lessons that I did take away from Gardner, such as:

1) Being careful not to pull readers away from the fictional dream. As in, interrupt the reader to begin thinking of the writing or writer. The smoothness, reality, and authenticity of the text has to be there.

2) Fiction is made of structural units and is not done in a rush. It takes time to develop scenes properly and well. It takes skill to create realistic characters that are relatable and aren't stifled by the writer's own personal views. Fiction is an art and must be carefully constructed.

3) One of the best way to learn to write is practice by doing small exercises. I've begun doing this more.

These are just a few examples of the many lessons he broke down for us in his book. There was nothing I noticed that conflicted with the novel program.

 

The third book I read was Write Away. I found this one intriguing and less technical, like a nice mix between Dillard and Maass' books. George outlines for us some of the creative methods she and other popular authors use. She does this in a less boring fashion than Gardner. This book helped me to feel less antsy about perfection, which in my opinion, is an unrealistic goal. It made me think more on the information I'm bringing to the table when it comes to the construction of my novels. How much do I know about characters, plot, conflicts, etc. Lessons I took away from her book were:

1) She highlights the importance of thoroughly knowing your characters and the use of proper/real-life dialogue between them. But I like how she emphasized how it's not enough to have good characters, you've got to have conflict amongst them to draw readers.

2) One main plot does not a novel make. It is important to have compelling subplots.

3) Sometimes being too worried about keeping to the rules can stifle creativity and take the wind out of an author's sail. I can relate to this because I believe to tell a great story it has to be partly intuition, partly imagination, and always adventure. Sure there is a place for rules to some degree, but most of the traditional greats didn't follow a specific structure.

The one thing about George's book that may conflict with the novel program is my third point. She doesn't always believe a set structure culminates success.

 

The fourth book in my reading was Writing The Breakout Novel. First of all, I loved this book. It's truth and humor about the business of writing was a joy to read. This book helped me understand that in the market presently as it stands, publishers' expectations are a lot higher. It taught me about the principles of a successful novel and how readers still hold the gamut of determining what sells. I like how Maass easily and entertainingly breaks down the equation of how to write stories that sell. Three lessons I learned in his book:

1) Create memorable premises, plots, and themes by incorporating emotional appeal, high stakes, and consider your setting as a living thing in order to plunge readers into a world they won't want to escape from.

2) Work on building larger than life characters with depth that readers will relate to and root for (This lesson seems to appear in all of the books, which makes me believe it is high priority)

3) Conflict has a great deal to do with riveting plot. A story with little to no conflict can bore/lose readers

There is so much more I can say that I've learnt from Maass. I'm definitely going to re-read this book to keep his methods in mind. He is not conflicting with any part of the novel program. If anything, he's the one that relates to it the most of the bunch.