But it would be an excellent preparation for a reader setting out to (re-)read Flaubert, Tolstoy, or Henry James. More to the point, he is one of the very. previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 next sort by previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 next Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. I don't think this is likely to be a very useful book for someone setting out to be a creative writer, especially if you want to write genre fiction, a topic that is clearly of no interest to Wood. In fact, there is at least one good reason to read 'How Fiction Works': Wood writes like an angel, with all the austerity and voluptuousness that implies. 19,027 ratings 2,273 reviews shelved 53,550 times Showing 30 distinct works. The great writer is one who does something unexpected, that no-one else would have done at that point, but that with hindsight is the obvious right thing to do. Wood evidently isn't setting out to be either polemical or prescriptive, he seems to feel that the writers he appreciates most are those who work within a given framework whilst pushing out its boundaries, rather than those who slavishly adhere either to past convention or to new theoretical doctrines. 2009 by James Wood (Author) 548 ratings See all formats and editions Kindle Edition £4.99 Read with Our Free App Hardcover £18.76 6 Used from £15.97 3 New from £42.52 Paperback £7.99 7 Used from £2.88 18 New from £6.99 MP3 CD £27.84 1 New from £27.

Wood looks at the usual suspects - style, form, dialogue, characters, and so on - and gives us a quick resumé of where the big names of world literature stand on those points and how (selected) contemporary writers are dealing with them. James Wood How Fiction Works Paperback 5 Feb. Forster's famous lecture-course Aspects of the novel. Hiding behind the dreadfully self-helpish title of this little book(*) is a thoughtful examination of the main elements of prose fiction, explicitly cast as a 21st century reworking of E.M.

How Fiction Works by James Wood