I've used this text for two semesters now, but will be retiring it in the Spring in order to try out Making Shapley Fiction + a contemporary short story anthology still TBD. The craft essays at the beginning of each chapter are too in-depth and analytical for beginning fiction writers, I think. As a textbook, this be perfect for students coming in with more experience/skills. I certainly learned a lot, though, and I plan to use some of these terms and explanations of craft elements in relation t More...

I am beginning my last semester of a Creative Writing BA program in San Francisco, and out of the many writing books I read (Anne Lamott, Stephen King, David Morley, Natalie Goldberg...), this one came close to perfection. It provides students a vocabulary that's grounding. With this book, they can discuss efficiently about writing, rather than wallow in trying to define what makes a story amazing or not. As a student myself, I've been frustrated by countless authors and teachers, explaining wri More...

Drinking Craft From a Firehose

Burroway, J., & Stuckey-French, E. (2007). Writing Fiction: a Guide to Narrative Craft, 7/e. New York: Pearson-Longman. (Bibliographic details and TOC at http://www.pearsonhighered.com/educat... ).

This textbook is often referred to as the Bible, or the gold standard for teaching fiction writing, and it is obvious why. Its 11 chapters in about 400 pages are each edited to a level of conciseness that results in hardly a wasted word in the book. That’s the good new More...

Rarely have I encountered a writing text so dense in wisdom, so practical, and so philosophically astute. I love how Burroway segues from specific suggestions to illustrative examples from literature to a unified, comprehensive and comprehendible theory of how fiction works.

"Although these are tricks that can be taught and learned, they partake of the essential nature of creativity, in which several elements are joined to produce not merely a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, but More...

Janet Burroway and Co.'s Writing Fiction is presumably used in many college classes for beginning writers, and it seems to be just the right book for that task. It clearly and thoroughly moves through the major writing topics (characterization, dialogue, setting, summary, details, plot, point of view, revision) and provides several short stories that exhibit different methods for each of these areas. However, more advanced writers looking to fine tune their abilities may need to look elsewhere. More...

I have muted the hashtag #writingtips on my Twitter feed and don't often read articles headed with anything similar. There are far too many people giving such advice and if ever you tell anyone that you write you'll get as many good intentions and pieces of priceless advice coming your way as if you fall pregnant, and just as many are to be avoided if you are to stay sane and do a halfway decent job (which in both cases would seem to me to involve a good handful of honest mistakes and a couple o More...

I read this book for a writing group I'm in and there's a reason why this is the holy grail when it comes to many advanced high school programs (St. John's in Houston) and university programs. The seventh edition uses two to three short stories in order to drive home the lessons and through such I was introduced to some fantastic works by Cheever, Oates and O'Connor. The book drills down deep into concepts that have also seemed basic, like the use of a simile, for example. Then it goes on to tal More...

I cannot in good conscience give this text anything higher than a two. The advice is solid, I'm not going to argue against that, but there is far too much meat in the writing that comes across less as solid writing advice and more as a formulaic approach to writing.

This text is full of bland approaches to writing and repeats the same things I've read in other books. The exercises are tedious and boring; there is no sense of adventure or experimentation. It's a methodical, bland, autopsy of writ More...

My editor recommended this book. It's strength is using examples to illustrate the teaching. So many books on writing reference movies or show no examples, leaving me to wonder "How would this work?" The examples great discussions with other writers.

The chapter on Showing and Telling reminded me to include only sensory details that matter. The pitfall for historical writers is to throw in every bit of research we've dug up. It fascinates us - won't everyone be interested? And that these sensory More...

Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway introduces the beginning writer to the craft of fiction writing. It is divided into nine chapters. Each chapter discusses an aspect of fiction writing, follows with example stories, and ends with exercises for practice. The instructional sections are a little dry and boring, but this is mainly because the level of detail in them. For example, Burroway goes through every single possibility for point of view or explain several metaphors for plot. The example stori More...

Clearly this book is written for the beginning English major in undergrad; the author herself even says so. Anyone outside of this demographic probably won't care or will grown bored. I fell into the latter group. While there were many kernals of good advice, it was all information I had heard before. Good reminders, perhaps; beyond that, it offered little more for me.

Overall, this is a good textbook for the undergrad English major. I would suggest being cautious with the author's opinions, howe More...

A great overview of the fiction writing process, chock full of awesomely teachable example stories. I've been teaching out of this book for years.

Picked this up for a fiction writing class.

Excellent, with some quibbles--

Used by creative writing programs all over the U.S., this book pretty much covers everything about the craft. The contemporary short stories at the end of each chapter were really good, especially starting from Chapter 4 with "Mule Killers" by Lydia Peelle.

The main focus of the book is literary fiction and is admittedly biased against genre fiction with a convincing reason: "whereas writing literary fiction can teach you how to write good genre fiction, writing gen More...

Stories:

Bonnie Friedman, "Message from a Cloud of Flies: On Distraction"
Annie Dillard from The Writing Life
William Carlos Williams "The Use of Force"
Frank O'Connor "Guests of the Nation"
Tim O'Brien from "The Things They Carried"
Joyce Carol Oates "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"
John Edgar Wideman "The Tambourine Lady"
Mary Robison "Yours"
Charles D'Ambrosio "The Point"
Tobias Wolff "Hunters in the Snow"
Toni Cade Bambara "My Man Bovanne"
Gabriel Garcia Marquez "A Very Old Man with Eno More...

I used the third edition of this book when I was an undergrad over 10 years ago, and now that I'm teaching creative writing, I turned to the seventh edition. I still feel that it's the best writing textbook available, but there aren't many textbooks to choose from. I'm disappointed that the seventh edition removed most of the discussion questions for the stories, and there isn't a teacher's supplement; students not familiar with literature are left to interpret the stories without any guidance o More...

This is an excellent textbook. I liked the short stories at the end of each chapter. I have read many of the authors in college. It was helpful to be given examples at the end of the chapter by successful writers. I thought the writing prompts and lessons were helpful. As I read this book I wanted to highlight and mark and study this book. I didn't (it is the libraries) but I will because I am going to buy it. I think it is a very good resource for the beginning writer.

This is for committed writers only. Expensive, and hard to find on library shelves. A highly valuable textbook on the writing process, covering story form, plot, structure, building character, place and setting, and a detailed look at point of view. Each section comes with examples of how things do and do not work. A graduate course all by itself.

Burroway's Writing Fiction is the best of the best when it comes to books on writing. Though geared toward the academic setting, it can be easily used by the casual writer. Each chapter covers a different aspect of writing, includes exercises to hone that part of your writing, and short stories that exemplify the lesson. It's great stuff.

A classic. One of my first writing books. I felt after reading and doing the exercises like I had a much better handle on what I had to look forward to if I wanted to work to improve my writing. From this book I found Robert Olen Butler so it was a gift in this way as well. She is a great teacher and I definately recommend this book.

First assigned to me in undergrad, this is also highly recommended by one of my MFA professors. The short stories featured in here as examples are some of the most memorable I've read. The lessons themselves I don't remember much of, but are quite comprehensive. This is one book I will be coming back to for years to come.

Again, Burroway has good information but she's kind of obnoxious and condescending and it can make the good info hard to swallow. This book will at least be better for improving your craft than any of the shitty commercial books on writing you can get at a regular book store, and older editions are cheap on Amazon or Half.com.

I started this book but for some reason stopped after the first chapter. I did try the "freewrite" method but it was incredibly messy and incoherent. I found out through "The Artist's Way" book by Julia Cameron that I prefer handwriting although that too is messy and incoherent.
I will have to check over it again...

I love Janet Burroway's writing-I want to read all her work. Such a great presence shining through the words. And very motivating. Just what it says-a guide and a very good one. It teaches as much about how to read as how to write. I've read it several times & want to read it again. Soon.

Excellent text book for the writing group I joined at College of DuPage. It's been a long time since I took a writing class, so I found the chapter-by-chapter treatment of elements of fiction a very good review. I particularly enjoyed a lot of the stories included as examples.

Excellent introduction to writing literary fiction. The elements in the book initially seem out of place, but the whole comes together very well, and the stories used to illustrate the examples are almost perfect. Probably the best introductory writing book I've come across.

This is one of my "I'm not in an MFA program so I'm learning from books" book. It offers a load of information and is well written; it has lots of examples from good writing to illustrate points it makes. I like it and find it helpful as I work on stories.

Anyone who's taken a fiction writing course in the last 5,261 years has probably read this book. If you haven't, clearly your professor was trying to be rebellious. This is THE standard fiction writing text...and it IS good, I admit. I just sort of wish they'd slim down the number of stories included...this is a bit dense, and any student of literature has read "Where are you going, Where have you been?" about a trillion times now. That, and "HIlls Like White Elephants." Yawn. And, like any good More...

Not for the faint of heart, this reads like an advanced college textbook and is geared for literary writers. That being said, it also has many gems of info that are valuable to any writer.

A great book for all the basics, as well as good examples of how other writers do it. A staple on my shelf - I turn to it again and again to help me remember all the little details.