Writing Short Stories: A Guide to Mastering the Craft
Description:
Pages: 116
Year of Publication: 2009
Price: HB Rs 250, FB Rs 200
ISBN:
HB 978-81-8157-921-8 (9788181579218)
FB 978-81-8157-922-5 (9788181579225)About the Author:
Suseela Panda Ravi is a physician who practised in the United States for thirty years and returned to India in 2004. She attended creative writing workshops at Stanford University for two years. Her fiction has appeared in e-journals like Muse India and in magazines such as Katha Kshetre and India Currents. She received the first prize in fiction contests organized by Katha Kshetre in 2006 and Muse India in 2008. Dr. Ravi lives in Bangalore. This is her first work of non-fiction.
Teaser:
In her preface to the book, Dr. Ravi writes:
“Nothing in this book can substitute for years of hands-on writing under the tutelage of a gifted teacher. Short of availability of such an arrangement, this book humbly but eloquently fills the void for those writers who wish to start their creative journey as writers of fiction in English …
The commonly held belief that writers are endowed with innate talent, and that it is not something that can be nurtured by reading books and taking courses in writing is not quite accurate. Very few writers belong to that ‘gifted-writer’ category; even they have to hone their skills to excel in their chosen field. Others will need greater effort to acquire the finesse that they know they lack. Some writers grow up surrounded by the right influences: growing up in a family of writers, having guidance from teachers, having easy accessibility to writing tools etc. If you come from a home where everybody speaks English, and you have read major writers like Shakespeare, Dickens, and Tolstoy, you have already had the opportunity to develop a sensibility for good literature. If you have not, don’t despair. Perseverance in learning and practising pays good dividends.”
Contents:
Preface / 09
CHAPTER 1
A Bit of History / 13
CHAPTER 2
The Basics / 16
CHAPTER 3
Characters in Motion / 21
CHAPTER 4
Plot / 27
CHAPTER 5
Point of View / 33
CHAPTER 6
Showing and Telling / 39
CHAPTER 7
The Role of Sensory Perception in Writing / 48
CHAPTER 8
Dialogue / 57
CHAPTER 9
“Style” – How to Say It / 61
CHAPTER 10
Revision / 76
CHAPTER 11
Going That Extra Step / 84
Bibliography / 91
APPENDIX: STORIES
A Cup of Tea by Paritosh Uttam / 95
The Scars by Vasundhara Ratakonda / 100
Home by Shruti Swami / 107