Learning to Write Fiction from the Masters

Book excerpt: Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, Ernest Hemingway, Willa Cather, Jack London, Dorothy Parker, John O’Hara, Elmore Leonard, and a host of other greats past and present have much to show you about how to begin and end a story, structure a plot, create memorable characters, write dialogue, depict settings and action, heighten romance, choose winning titles, and meet all the other challenges of the art of fiction. Barnaby Conrad, a bestselling author as well as one of America’s premier creative writing teachers, has selected key examples from the best of the best to reveal the essential tools of storytelling and demonstrate their use. His book offers fresh inspiration and guidance for all writers of fiction. It is also a joy to read. “Barnaby’s book is a great idea. I am sure it will be exactly what all prospective writers need, but it is more than an idea and more than a book. Actually, it is a correspondence course.”—Charles M. Schulz “This book is a blessing. Barnaby Conrad’s brilliantly organized examples of how fiction is fashioned will be turned to again and again for inspiration and advice.”—Sol Stein “Barnaby Conrad’s Learning to Write Fiction from the Masters is as lively and informative as his Santa Barbara Writers Conference, and that’s saying a lot.”—Joseph Wambaugh