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Alone With All That Could Happen: Rethinking Conventional Wisdom about the Craft of Fiction | 
 enlarge | Author: David Jauss
Publisher: Writers Digest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $12.44
You Save: $7.55 (38%)
New (30) Used (6) from $12.44
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 22365
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.8 x 1
ISBN: 1582975388
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.3
EAN: 9781582975382
ASIN: 1582975388
Publication Date: July 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In a satisfying story or novel, all of the pieces seem to fit together so effortlessly, so seamlessly, that it s easy to find yourself wondering, How on earth did the author do this? The answer is simple: He sat alone at his desk, considered an array of options, and made smart, careful choices.In Alone With All That Could Happen, award-winning author and respected creative writing professor David Jauss addresses overlooked or commonly misunderstood aspects of fiction writing, offering practical information and advice that will help you make smart creative and technical decisions about such topics as: - writing prose whose syntax and rhythm create a soundtrack for the story it tells
- choosing the right point of view to create the appropriate degree of distance between your characters and the reader
- writing valid and convincing epiphanies
- harnessing the power of contradiction in the creative process
In one thought-provoking essay after another, Jauss sorts through unique fiction-writing conundrums, including how to create those exquisite intersections between truth and fabrication that make all great works of fiction so much more resonant and powerful than fiction that follows the generic write what you know approach that s so often preached.
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| Customer Reviews:
Irreplaceable Confrontations October 7, 2008
Cynthia C. Sample
Others who have reviewed these essays emphasize the (stellar) technical essays in this collection, but I'd like to add that the last essay "Lever of Transcendence" is the real diamond in the collection. This essay explores and explains why some art lives and some does not. It is thus a treatise on life as well as writing. I'd predict and hope that this piece would be read and re-read by every serious reader as well as every serious writer -- and maybe the not-so-serious ones as well.
Will blow your mind with its brilliant insight! Read, then read AGAIN. September 26, 2008
NaughtiLiterati (NYC)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As I commented on the other reviewer's post, I'd picked this book up and put it back several times before I saw HIS review and ended up buying it. I know I'm not alone in buying and spending too much time reading writing books instead of writing, but this purchase is justified and CRUCIAL to growth as a writer.
I read the book from cover to cover in less than a week and the information is so vital, groundbreaking, and provocative, that is is NECESSARY to read it more than once. Each essay. You will be excited about going back to page one just to make sure that everything sinks in!
I realize now that I put the book back a few times before buying it because it is NOT the kind of book that you can take a quick glimpse at and decide whether or not you need it. It must be read closely and carefully. Please take our word it, you will be a better writer because of it. My favorite chapters were on the point of view, epiphanies about epiphanies and putting together a story collection. This is a book for serious writers, and makes me think of my FAVORITE critic in the world Wyatt Mason (who he even references about Edward P. Jones - read Mason's essay on Jones online from Harper's at ONCE). Mason and Jauss make you proud to be writers, and make you see fiction with an even more exhilarated critical eye so you can love it as a reader and admire and absorb it as a writer. Gosh, let me stop gushing and get back to work.
I put this book up there with The Art of Fiction. Timely and timeless already! Dayum! Well done, Mr. Jauss!
The Best Writing Book You Haven't Read August 3, 2008
John Dishon (Bowling Green, Kentucky United States)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
The firs two essays alone in this collection are worth the price of the book. David Jauss looks at such craft issues as point of view, epiphanies, the organization of a short story collection, writing what you know, and other things. But what makes this book stand out from other writing books is David Jauss doesn't just repeat the same old tired and already well-known wisdom on such topics.
Instead, Jauss gives us a whole new way of looking at it. The chapter on Point Of View is the best one. This essay looks at how point of view is more a matter of technique than a matter of denoting which person is telling the story, and Jauss goes on to talk about how multiple point of view shifts are not only okay, but in many cases, they are preferred.
You won't get the same insight elsewhere. Whereas most writing books just repeat the same advice, perhaps with a thematic gimmick thrown in to make it look different, ALONE WITH ALL THAT COULD HAPPEN is a new way of looking at old writing techniques. The essays are heavy with examples from other works and quotes from other sources, making this in a way a more academic writing book than most, but the insights delivered simply should not be passed up.
If you're a writer, get this book.
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