Writing Great Fiction

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z Finally, keep in mind that creative writing isn’t a science. The only rule
in this endeavor is: Whatever works. Throughout these lectures, we’ll
look at many choices for presenting stories; the best way you can use
the lectures is to adapt the possibilities in these choices to your own
work, taking whatever is useful and ignoring the rest.


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  1. Without thinking too hard about it, try to recall a vivid image you
    may have seen recently, in real life or on television, and see if you can
    imagine a story to explain it. You can start with the Faulkner technique:
    Simply describe the image, such as a mother yelling at her child in the
    supermarket, then branch off from there, explaining why the mother is so
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    technique with the same image: Outline the life of the mother so far—
    her girlhood, her courtship, the birth of her child—and work up to the
    moment in the supermarket. See which approach works best for you.


Suggested Reading

Writing Exercise
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