Rick DeMarinis (1934–2019)

A fine piece of instructive writing full of excellent examples. The thing that makes this book so good is that the author doesn't just preach his points - he illustrates them. He draws heavily on examples from his own writing, but this is fully justified by their applicability to the point he is trying to make. I learned a lot from this book.

The short story in English is an especially protean type of expression which can cause fits for those who try to define how it is supposed to work. The author's humility in taking this task on is admirable, and so is the more modest strategy of talking about the different aspects of craft by using examples from stories both real and fake. Someone who is really just coming to the idea of writing stories for the first time will probably be baffled by the lack of a simple statement of what show more makes a good short story versus a bad one, but someone who's tried their hand at them might find a lot they can resonate with in the examples he gives. show less

This was my first venture into reading a book about the technical side of writing books, short stories or otherwise. I’d like to give the excuse that perhaps I set my expectations too high, but in fact, I had no expectation at all, other than to learn something I hadn’t already figured out for myself.

On the plus side, the author does write well – you can get totally immersed in some of the stories he provides as examples of a particular style. He also knows what he is talking about. He show more understands style, voice, plot, beginnings and endings. One could learn from worse. That’s about it.

Everything else in the book seems like abuse. A good quarter to a third of the book is filled with page after page after page of great examples of why one should not write in a particular style – and these examples are his own stories! When he mentions an example of good writing, he tells you to go find a story or book by a different author. But when he talks about a difficult style (for example, time suspension, for lack of a better term) he provides you a story of his own. He will also tell you about his trials and tribulations of how he finally arrived at his completed work – and it’s a piece of poo! I’m sure he meant well, but to me, it’s an advertisement to avoid all of the other dozen-plus books he’s ever written.

In his defense, books about writing books – inspiration, motivation, technical… seem to be difficult to write well. I’m now reading three other books in this same sub-subsection of the Dewey catalog, and apparently, it’s a tad difficult to write well on the subject.

In short, if I had bought this book at a bookstore, I would have asked for my money back, despite the positive things I eked from it. Since I got it from my local library, I’ll return it before I incur a fine. I would not recommend this book. show less

Not very well organized, and chapters like "Form" are less about form than about attempting unconventional forms, but this monograph is definitely one step more advanced and insightful than the usual "Writer's Digest" craft books, etc, with regard to the creative process and the writer's choices and the special requirements and character of the short story form.