Gotham Writers' Workshop Writing Fiction: The Practical Guide from New York's Acclaimed Creative Writing School

Shopping for and reading books on creative writing is a long and sometimes painful process. Some books get great reviews and are interesting to read, but don't have much actual writing instruction. Rather, the reader is encouraged to just sort of "go with the flow" or "follow where the story takes you". Not so with the Gotham Writer's Workshop book on writing fiction. This book has a great balance of solid, no-frills writing instruction, along with exercises entitled "Your Turn". Your Turn means exactly what it sounds like - after reading and learning about one of the fundamentals of fiction, you can try to incorporate it into your own work. The exercises are short and focus just on what's been covered. What I liked most about this book is every subject of writing is covered, and covered well. In the beginning you'll start by developing a writing schedule, creating a character, giving them a name and most importantly, a strong desire. One of the first thing the book teaches is that passive characters who don't really want anything usually don't make for exciting reading. The chapters progress, touching upon plot, description, Point of View (a great chapter that isn't given enough focus in most other writing books), and at the end the book even shows you how to get your work into print, and gives you a heads-up about any potential stumbling blocks along the way. One of the things that makes the book so good is that the book is written by a collection of authors, each one covering their "specialty" . All of the writers are accomplished fiction instructors and writers and certainly know what they are talking about. When appropriate, examples are taken from famous works such as The Great Gatsby to prove or illustrate a concept. This is very helpful. In addition, the text includes a short story, Cathedral, which is analyzed throughout. The book lays down the "rules" of fiction, but also encourages you (once you're familiar with them) to break them occasionally as you gain experience and knowledge. This is a terrific book, and if you want to write fiction, it is a must have.

I liked this book a lot, I actually came out of it feeling smarter. About a third of it reminded me of high school English classes (metaphors, theme, etc etc). The only thing I would have liked to see is the analysis of commercial fiction. If commercial fiction is what you want to write, this probably wouldn't be the best book for you. This is for the people who want to write the great American Novel, or short story. The chapters on dialogue and pacing were very helpful to me. I was also happy to see the book go into how to form your paragraphs and not to use too many of the same length. That's usually something I don't see address in other writing books. Overall, a good read and would highly recommend.

An excellent primer to hone your writing skills. The short story offered, Cathedral by Raymond Carver, seemed to me a weak and amateurish example to hold up, but the advice is very sound and practical. Teachers of the Gotham Writers' Workshop trade off in each chapter, expounding by turns on their areas of expertise. They address common problems for beginning writers and offer practical help for resolving those problems. I found the chapter on Theme particularly useful (it is provided by Terry Bain). The book concludes with a useful cheat sheet to help focus the novice writer's work. My only experience with the Gotham Writers' Workshop was overpriced and offered little to no practical help or feedback on my writing examples. So I can't recommend them based on my experience -- just get the book and work on your own is my advice.

This is a great book. It is well organized, concise, and easy to read. My biggest problem in writing is disorganization. I have many ideas but I prioritize and organize them poorly. I plant so many trees that I forget about how the forest will look. This book helped me by providing a framework for building fiction. It discusses the major components of fiction: character, plot, theme, voice, etc. Then it tells you what the choices are for each. Then it provides you examples of authors who have made each of the choices, and it discusses why they did so. Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral", in the back of the book, is analyzed throughout. This book has even improved my READING skills. Now when I read a novel I ask, "why did the author choose to throw in that detail? Why did he use the first person instead of third?" Great, great book. Highly recommended.

I have read other books on "How To Write" and they are pale in comparsion to "Writing Fiction". This book gets to the heart of writing. It was easy to read and understand. They have excellent writing exercises. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has desire to write. This book is not only for writing fiction but applies to all genre.