The Longman Guide to Intermediate and Advanced Fiction Writing addresses the artistic implications of craft choices. Each chapter considers a different topic and includes examples of the revision process from well-known writers. Questions and exercises throughout the book help writers reflect on and explore writing possibilities.
A section on the writing life includes candid discussions of writer's block, talent, habit, rejection, publication, and endurance to help aspiring professionals develop sustainable lives as writers.
Note: this is the trade version of Deepening Fiction: A Practical Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Writers, which uses short examples from published works as illustrations and does not include the mini-anthology of stories. The quotes refer to Deepening Fiction: A Practical Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Writers.
“This guide to writing fiction is the most valuable one I’ve seen since Janet Burroway’s. The authors are both sophisticated and clear-sighted, and their instruction is clearly that of writers to other writers. Even published authors might find this book valuable. I recommend it strongly.”
“This is on my very very short list of books that offer the serious writer an intelligent and perceptive discussion about the tools of our craft; the emphasis on revision in every chapter is evidence that Nyren and Stone know what’s essential as we write our way toward stories that matter.”
“This is the most literate, practical and inspired guide of its kind, as urgently useful to the developing writer as a dictionary or a muse. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how fiction is made.”
“This is not simply a book about the craft of fiction. Stone and Nyren have given us a poignant book—thoroughly researched, thoughtfully organized, and beautifully written—that engages the serious writer in the craft of making art. I turn to it for practice and for inspiration.”