5 stars (Review?) - This is not a review - but I have a question. DOESN'T ANYBODY WHO REVIEWS AT AMAZON KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A REVIEW AND AN OPINION????? I get utterly frustrated at all of your opinions and I still don't know what's IN the book most of the time. Go read up on how to REVIEW a book before you enter stuff here and waste our time! 2 stars (Are YOU ready to write mediocre *blah* fiction?) - First let me say that I am not a mean person. I am sure Ms. Burroway is doing her best to teach people how to write here. And look, the book is popular, and it's sold a lot of copies so that's something, right? Well, popularity is not enough for me. And I would hope it's not enough for other smart consumers too -- professors and students alike. This book shares a virtue in common with many other fine American textbooks these days -- it takes up a lot of space to say disappointingly little. It's structured thusly: The author covers all the elements of fiction, one after the other, in a very cursory manner, interspersing between her thoughts a few mildly inspiring, mildly relevant quotes from a few "Important Writers." Now the author's commentary on the elements of fiction is why I bought the book. I wanted to know about the elements of fiction and how I can use and fuse them to help me build legendary, immaculate fiction. Some of the commentary here, though not so original, is helpful. The author has clearly read up on the topic, and she doesn't do a terrible job distilling the basics. But each chapter left me wanting. These mini-essays are sparse, folks, sparse, and they won't get you past Fiction Writing 101. After each fiction element is discussed, the author then presents a selection of short stories which feature the techniques discussed. Theory in practice. Not such a bad idea -- in theory. But in practice, this idea doesn't work so well, because the author's taste for fiction is generally (excuse me) mundane, to put it kindly. ... Longman :: Literary Criticism & Collections & General :: Technique :: Narration (Rhetoric) :: Literary Criticism :: Language Arts & Linguistics & Literacy :: General :: Fict :: Writing Fiction (6th Edition)
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