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This is important because in many genres, short stories are how beginning writers learn their craft and begin to market their work.Because the focus of this book is not narrowly on plot per se, but about "beginnings, middles, and ends" as an organizing frame for teaching how to write well, it can serve passably well as a one-stop book on fiction writing. For this reason, Kress puts a spotlight on the very beginning (opening lines or paragraphs) and very ending, since these are places that will sink and entire work if they're not effective. (I see the two approaches as complementary). There's information here on dialog, incorporating detail and exposition, establish setting and tone, etc.This book has the feel of talking with a working writer about what works and what doesn't; she uses only the abstractions and concepts she needs to make the point. An interesting middle builds on that, and a satisfying ending delivers on the promise.When I read this book, I got a solid picture of what Kress as a writer thinks about as she works on a story and (to a degree) how she works. This is part of the Writer's Digest "Elements of Fiction" series (presumably the previous incarnation of their current "Write Great Fiction" series).
It's also a shorter book. When talking about middles, she addresses the common experience of feeling stuck or overwhelmed by a writing project.A refreshing feature of this book is that Kress frequently gives advice tailored to the short story form, not focusing exclusively on novels as many writing books do. This book is thus a kind of counterpart to James Scott Bell's Plot and Structure. There's interesting discussion about whether or not to revise the beginning and perfect it before moving on, and always an eye toward the reader (or editor) and what they will need to see at each point in the piece to make it work for them. Someone looking for a clear, readable orientation to the craft of fiction writing will be well served by this book. Whereas Bell approaches the subject as a college tutor might, analyzing classic plot structures and using diagrams to illustrate the rhythm of a story, Kress's approach is more down-to-earth.
As the title implies, she looks at these three parts of a novel or story and offers clear advice about what each needs to accomplish and how to go about it.A key idea running through this book is that the beginning makes a promise to the reader: not about exactly how the story will turn out, but about what kind of reading experience it will deliver.
I rank Nancy's book to be among the best of the best. I am an aspiring writer and have two novels under my belt. because that is what this book of hers deserves. She is helping me gain structure and power in my writing.Sorry there is not a 10 ranking. I am currently working on my third. I have many How-To books in my collection, some good and others lousy.
I have a shelf full of books on writing, and this has been the most helpful one. But this is the best one I've read for directly addressing the structure and purpose of the main elements of story. This book lays out the basics of story in it's most important and fundamental fashion - the beginning, middle and end. And it gets right down to it to deliver great insights from a working professional story writer who's thought deeply into what does and doesn't work and why.A lot of other books concentrate on other aspects of story, all of which are important.
It's clear, crisp, orderly, incredibly organized (especially when you consider that she's dealing with what is essentially how to tell a story, no small task in itself). I have always been told I'm a "good writer" and I have always wanted to "write" (specifically, make up stories and put them on paper. Even so, I have spent most of my adult life in jobs that were dependent on writing and reasoning skills but, despite the number of stories in my head, never knew what to do with them. Now THAT'S a mid-life crisis.
Too bad it took so long, but there I was one morning, standing in front of the mirror lost in the thousand yard stare when all of a sudden my writing focus burst out at me like a super-nova. And ever since then, my life has simply made sense. For the first time in my life, I feel as if I know what I'm doing. In general, the two series "Elements of Fiction Writing" and the Writer's Digest books on writing fiction are excellent and, in addition to being downright enlightening, are just pure, huge fun.
It could be that I'm just dense, but the reading I've been doing lately (like Noah Lukeman's "The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile" and "Thinking Like Your Editor: How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction--and Get It Published" by by Susan Rabiner and Alfred Fortunato, both excellent, five-stars from me, at least) has been positively enlightening. moment, somewhere in pages 84 - 87. And despite starting with Aristotle's Poetics in high school, I guess I just didn't get it. But even more, is enormous fun to read and leads inevitably to that great AH-HA.
Frankly, it's hard to rave too much about this book, because there's no much to rave about. So thank you, Nancy Kress for telling me how to go about writing a story. And "Beginnings, Middles, and Endings" is one of the best.
Now I have given the book to two in my writing group and they also think it is excellent. That's what the books says. I never saw any other book on this subject. This book I read in christmas and it has been a very good help for me to write the end of a book I am working with. In fact if you write a beginning you have the end.
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